Betrayal
by virgofairy17
Summary: ItaSaku, with appearances from Sasuke. Sakura misses Sasuke and joins the Akatsuki to get him back, but doesn't count on falling in love with Itachi. Rated M for some language and later chapters.
1. Chapter 1

**Betrayal

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ItaSaku is one of my favorite pairings, so last year I decided to write about them.

**Author's Note:** This story was written almost a year ago, but has been reworked just for all of you.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Naruto, especially not Itachi.

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Six years! It had been six years since he left to go join Orochimaru... 

I laid down on the bench: the same bench that I laid on after he left. I still remember the last thing he said to me...

_"You're annoying..."_ I sat up and then I began to cry.

"Sasuke was my everything...but he left me! I don't know what to do now!" I shouted up at the sky. Rain was pouring down on me as I screamed those words. They say the rain can wash away the pain...but it can't erase the memories...the memories I had with Sasuke.

I still remember the day we got put on the same squad together...

**_Flashback _**

_"And here are the people that will be on squad seven..." Iruka-sensei was announcing the new genin teams. Each team would have three students, and there were ten teams. I had been waiting for ages for my name to be called. But I was really hoping that I would be on the same team as Sasuke..._

_"Uzamaki Naruto." _

_"Yeah! Believe it!" I was hoping it would be me, Sasuke, and some nice person I could tolerate. But my dreams were shattered when my name was called..._

_"Haruno Sakura."_

_"I'm doomed!"  
"Yeah!" Naruto had a crush on me at the time, and he was happy to have me on his team. But I wanted to beat the crap out of him! That kid was so annoying! He even stole Sasuke's first kiss! That could have been my kiss..._

_But then things totally flipped when the third name was called..._

_"And. Uchiha Sasuke." _

_"Not Sasuke!" Naruto and Sasuke have been rivals for ages. And now they were on the same team! This was not going to end well at all..._

_"Yay! Sasuke's on my team! Ha! Take that Ino-pig!" I turned around to shout at Ino. Ino liked Sasuke to, but I liked him first! And now that I was on the same team as Sasuke, all I wanted to do was rub it in her big fat ugly pig-face! _

_"Hmph. Well you may be on the same team as him, but he's still going to be mine!" she said glaring at me with her ugly pig-face. I laughed in her face. But I laughed twice as hard when she got put on the same team as Shikamaru and Choji. Shikamaru was the laziest guy in our class, while Choji only thought of his stomach._

_**End Flashback**_

"Sasuke..." I whispered. I hadn't seen him for so long...I missed him so much! I began to cry again as soon as his face entered my mind.

_**Flashback**_

_Kakashi-sensei had recommended all three of us for the chunin exams. We were in the forest of death, and Sasuke had just defeated the sound ninja. _

_"Sakura."_

_"Yes, Sasuke?"_

_"Don't tell Naruto about the curse mark. If he's worried about me, then it won't do any good for the team."_

_"I won't tell." _

_Then several months later Sasuke was leaving to go join Orochimaru. I tried to get him to stay, but he refused._

_"Sasuke! Please...come back," I said with tears in my eyes._

_"No. If I leave now, I won't be strong enough to defeat my brother," he said turning his back to me. _

_"But...I don't want you to leave. We're a team," I said. Sasuke continued walking. Then I got irritated and grabbed him by the arm._

_"Sasuke, please don't leave! I love you!" _

_"Sakura..." He turned around to look at me. Then he spoke._

_"You're annoying..." he said. I just fell on my knees and began to cry, and Sasuke left... I haven't seen him since..._

_**End Flashback**_

"Sakura..." I turned around hoping it Sasuke...but it was only Naruto.

"What?" I said wiping the tears from my eyes.

"Why are you out here in the rain? You're going to get sick," he said sitting down next to me.

"It's been six years," I said to him.

"I know. That jerk! Even after I beat the crap out of him he still wouldn't listen to me!" said Naruto slamming his fists into the wood of the bench beside him. I just sat there and looked down at the rain soaked ground.

"Sakura."

"What?"

"Lets get out of here," he said getting up.

"Okay," I said. I followed Naruto until we got to his favorite place in the world: Irichiraku's Ramen bar.

We sat down on the stools and ordered our usual ramen. It was warm and dry underneath the canopy that hung over the bar. And for some reason, ramen always tasted better on a cold rainy day.

"Hey Sakura, watch this," said Naruto. He took two chopsticks and stuck them in his nose.

"That's real mature," I said laughing. I took a few noodles and put them on my upper lip.

"Nice moustache Sakura," said Naruto giggling.

"What are you two doing now?" said a voice. We turned around to see Shikamaru staring at us. Naruto quickly took his chopsticks and hid them behind his back.

"Oh, hi Shikamaru," I said taking the noodles off my lip. "What's up?"

"Not much...just hanging around..." he said taking a seat next to Naruto.

The three of us sat around and talked over ramen and hot chocolate. Then it was getting late.

"Well, I guess I'll head home," I said getting up.

"Aw. So soon?" said Naruto sighing.

"Sorry, but I'll see you guys tomorrow," I said. "Bye!"

"Sounds good to me..." said Shikamaru. "I guess I'll go home too," he said getting up.

When I got back to my apartment the room was completely trashed! Someone broke in, and I was going to kill them! I took a kunai from my weapons pouch and slowly, but carefully searched the house to make sure no one was still here. I slowly walked around the room and into the kitchen.

Nobody was there.

I kept going until I entered the bathroom. I peeked inside the shower and there was no one there either. But I couldn't let my guard down. I searched every nook and cranny and then I started making my way to the bedrooms.

I went into the guest bedroom and looked in every direction. I looked under the bed, in the closet, and even under the desk...but no one was there. Then I went into my room. I went in and the window was open...

Attached to the windowsill was a note:

_Give us the kyuubi, or we will kill you._

The note was anonymous, but I knew who sent it.

"They're after Naruto again," I whispered. I put the note in my pocket and cleaned up my apartment. Three hours later I was done and I made myself some dinner.

I sat down in the living room in front of the TV and watched all my favorite shows. As usual, it was a pretty quiet night. But I still couldn't help but wonder is Sasuke was okay. After all, he was under the control of Orochimaru.

After I finished eating and watching all my shows, I went to bed.

_I was running down a dark corridor towards the light. All I could hear were screams of other people. I was trembling in fear as the screams got louder and more blood curling. Soon blood was dripping from the ceiling all over me, but I kept running. Then I heard a mysterious voice:_

_"Come...come to me," said the voice. I kept running faster and faster until I entered the light. I saw a shadow and by the looks of it, their back was turned towards me._

"Who...who are you?" I asked as I approached the shadow. Then I started to shake in fear as the shadow turned around. The mysterious stranger came closer and closer and then...

I woke up in cold sweat on the floor next to my bed. I got up and turned on the lights to my room. But when I did, the window was open.

"I thought I shut that thing," I said walking over to the window. When I was just about to close the window, I saw another note taped to the window frame:

_We're waiting... Bring the kyuubi to the training grounds or we will kill you._

"Great, how am I supposed to do that? There's no way Naruto is going to agree to this... I'll have to find another way..."

I made it to the training grounds to find on one was there. Then a shadow jumped down from the treetops.

"Do you have the kyuubi?"

"He's right here. Come on out Naruto." Naruto came out and walked up the shadow.

"I'm here," he said. "And ready to obey every command."

"Good." The shadow emerged and revealed a scary guy who looked like a shark. I stood there and glared at him. Then he pulled out his giant sword from his back.

"Hey! Come on down, we've got a feisty one!" he shouted up to the trees. Another shadow jumped down and he was wearing a hat to cover his face. But I knew exactly who was under there.

"Itachi...I know it's you...you coward," I said pulling out a kunai. He took off his hat to reveal the most dangerous criminal in the world. His face was stoic, void of emotion. Crimson eyes stared back at me through wisps of silky black hair.

"Coward huh?" Then he looked over at Naruto. "You're the one who's a coward. Using a clone. You should have thought more carefully," he said taking out his katana. The Naruto clone I had made vanished, leaving me left to fight these guys.

"Well Itachi, what should we do to her?" he said looking at me.

"Kill her. She didn't heed our warnings." Itachi lashed out at me and punched me in the face. I fell to the ground and I began to bleed heavily out of my mouth.

"You...really think you can just hit me like that?" I said getting up. Itachi just stared at me with his cold red sharingan eyes. "Well, you're wrong. I'm not the weak little girl I used to be!" I said hitting him back.

Itachi didn't really care though. He just wiped the blood away from his mouth and chuckled.

"You're foolish," he said. "But I think we would have use for you," he said.

"What do you mean?" I said. "What have you got up your sleeve?"

"Hn."

"Well?"

"I know that you're quite taken with Sasuke," he said looking down at me. "Tell me. Would you like to see him again?"

I wasn't quite sure exactly how to respond to this.

"Keep talking," I said.

"I bet you want...revenge. He betrayed you, didn't he? And if I'm not mistaken, you still care for him." Then he began to pace around me.

"Today is your lucky day. If you join us, you can take your revenge, and Sasuke will be yours."

"I don't trust you." I said. But then I thought about how badly I wanted to see Sasuke again...

I really didn't want to do this, but I felt as if I had no choice. But just to be sure, I had to ask what would happen if I refused Itachi's offer.

"And what if I said 'no'?" I asked.

"You die," said Itachi as if death was no big deal at all. I had to make a decision, whether I liked it or not. It was either death or live the life of a criminal, and I really didn't want to die.

"I'll join you," I said bowing my head down in shame.

"You've made an excellent choice," said Itachi as he made a slash through my headband with a kunai. So now, whether I liked it or not...I was now a missing-nin, and a class-S criminal in everyone's bingo books.

"Let's go," said Itachi's partner. We followed him and traveled endlessly for almost two days without stopping. Eventually we stopped at a small waterfall. I followed Itachi and his partner along the edge of the water hole. The rocks weren't that stable, but I kept going. They went behind the waterfall into a cave and I followed them in.

We traveled for what seemed like ages along strange mysterious passages until we came out the back of the cave. There was a thick forest surrounded by dark pine trees, and it was so dark not one ounce of light made it to the floor of the forest.

"Where are we?" I asked.

"Shut up bitch," said the shark man.

"Excuse me? But I have a name! My name is Sakura Haruno and you will not call me a bitch!" I shouted.

"Keep your voices down," said Itachi. "And Kisame..."

"What now?"

"Speak again and I will kill you," he said as we continued walking. Kisame obeyed him and I didn't speak for the next few hours. The forest kept getting darker, (not that it wasn't dark enough already!) and we started heading up a mountain. I was wondering why we were climbing up the mountain; there was nothing there at the top! Or was there?

"We're here," said Itachi walking forward to a small clearing. He dug through several inches of dirt until a small symbol appeared. He tapped on it three times and we disappered underground into the mountain. I don't exactly know how many feet down we went, but it seemed like an eternity! We stopped moving and hit rock bottom.

"This is it," said Itachi. "Your new home now," he said motioning for me to follow him. He opened a wooden door and inside was an over decorated room with red carpeting and black marble floors. The place was completely spotless!

Then I heard a scream.

"What was that?" I said looking around the room.

"Relax, it only...her."

"Her who?" I asked. An older girl with blonde hair and a tan came out of one of the doors wearing a pink skimpy outfit.

"Itachi my love! You came back!" she said throwing herself all over him. Kisame began to laugh, and I just stood there wondering what the heck was going on.

"Who's that?" I asked Kisame.

"Wow, you're dumber than I expected. That's Mai, the annoying bitch who cooks our food," he said glaring at her.

"What?" Mai let go of Itachi, and then she looked at me.

"Who's that ugly girl with the big forehead?"

_'That evil bitch! No one makes fun of my forehead.' _

Itachi sighed.

"This...is Sakura, our newest member."

"Hmph. She's definitely not a looker, but I hope she knows enough to STAY AWAY FROM MY ITACHI!" she said directly to me.

"You can have him...I'm not interested in him," I said. Itachi pushed Mai off him and had me follow him upstairs.

"I'll see you tonight!" she said waving to him. He just ignored her.

"Is she your girlfriend or something?" I asked.

"No."

"Then why did she say she was meeting you tonight?"

"Look, she's not my girlfriend. She's just some girl that I slept with once, and now she won't leave me alone."

"You slept with that ugly bimbo?" I said. Itachi ignored me and stopped in front of the door. He knocked on the door.

"Come in," said a voice. There was a tall man looking out the window. He turned around and it was a man with spiky orange hair and tons of piercings standing before me.

"Did you get the kyuubi?" he asked.

"No, but I got the next best thing. This girl here is the kyuubi's friend," said Itachi pushing me forward.

"What do you want with Naruto?" I asked him.

"It is simple. We need the kyuubi to take over the world."  
"What are you going to do to him?" I said with anger in my voice.

"We are going to extract the kyuubi from him. Fortunately he won't survive." Pein turned around and then he spoke again. "Now on to more current matters...let's discuss you being a part of this organization. Do you want power? Or perhaps it is something else you require?"

"I joined this organization so I could save Sasuke from Orochimaru," I said.

"Interesting. Well as long as you are here, you will follow my orders and do exactly as I say. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes."

"Itachi, show Sakura to her room." Itachi nodded and I followed him out of the office.

'What have I gotten myself into now?' I wondered.

'Aw, why such a stick in the mud? You'll get to see Sasuke again. Heck, if I were you I would do Itachi instead!'

'Shut up! Nobody asked you. Besides, you are me.' Inner Sakura never knows when to be quiet!

I followed Itachi down a long hall until we stopped in front of another door.

"This is your room," he said opening the door. The walls had fancy wallpaper with a red carpet and a large bed near the window. There was also a golden chandelier hanging from the ceiling and a small couch. There was also a small closet and inside were my new robes. I took them out of the closet and looked at them. They were black with red clouds, just like everyone else's.

"What's this other door right here?" I asked.

"The bathroom," he said taking a seat on the couch. I went inside the bathroom with my robes, and it was average sized and everything was white. I put on the fishnet shirt, a shirt over it, a pair of shorts, and fishnets underneath. There were also several bottles of purple nail polish in the cabinet. I took one out and I painted my fingernails and my toes with an dark purple shade.

I went back into my room to find Itachi was still there.

"What are you still doing here?" I asked him.

"I guess Leader-sama forgot to mention that we're sharing a room."

"What? There's no way I'm sharing a room with you!" I shouted.

"Stop complaining. You can have the couch." I sighed and then I heard my stomach growl. I hadn't eaten anything in over a day.

"Is there a dining room around here?" I asked. Itachi got up.

"Follow me." I followed Itachi downstairs through a dark hall.

_Then Itachi disappeared and everything became darker. The blood began to pour from the ceiling, and the screams began to get even louder than before. _

_"No! I have to get out of here!" I shouted I kept running and running, and the light wasn't getting any closer. Then I heard that same voice again:_

_"Come to me..." _

_"Who are you?" _

_"Come to me...my love..."_

_I was so confused and frightened, but I kept going to the point where I was sprinting. Then there was a flash of white light and there was the shadow standing there again. _

_The shadow moved closer. _

_I reached out to touch the shadow and then..._

I felt a splash of cold water on my face.

"What the hell?" Itachi was looking down at me and Kisame was holding an empty bucket, which I assumed had water in it.

"Wha...what happened?" I asked.

"You passed out," said Itachi.

"Oh." I got up and wiped the water off my face with the sleeve of my cloak.

"Exactly what were you dreaming about?" said Itachi looking at me with that scary glare in his eyes.

'Should I tell him about the dream? I didn't think he'd understand.'

"I don't remember...something about blood..." Itachi and Kisame both looked at me strangely. Then Itachi picked me up so I was hanging over his shoulder.

"Put me down!" I said kicking him.

"You're obviously not well," he said as we walked down the stairs. When we got the dining room, Itachi set me down in one of the chairs next to a couple of guys I've never seen before. But the person I was sitting next to was a blonde girl, which made me feel a bit better about so few girls being around here.

"Hey there, so...are you new here, un?" I nodded. "So, what's your name," she said leaning in.

"Sakura." This girl was really weird. "Uh...could you back away a few feet?" I asked nicely.

"What's wrong Sakura? Afraid?" she asked me.

"Uh...its not that. Its just that...I'm not into girls."

"Is that so?" The girl kept leaning in.

"Can't you take a hint? I'm not gay!" I shouted.

"Deidara? What the hell are you doing now?" A man with red hair came in the room and glared at Deidara.

"Sasori-danna, I was just being nice to the new girl," said Deidara backing away.

"You'll have to excuse him, he's not well."

"He? You mean...she's a guy?" Deidara's face turned red and he got angry.

"What did you think I was? I'm not some prissy girl!" he shouted.

"I'm sorry...you're not a prissy girl." I paused for a few seconds. "I think you're a transvestite!" I shouted.

Sasori started laughing until Itachi came back in the room.

"Oh. I see you've met Deidara and Sasori." Then Kisame came back into the room followed by some weird guy wearing a mask and a tall guy with white hair. The guy with the white hair sat down next to me.

"Um...hi," I said. "My name is Sakura, what's yours?"

"I am Hidan," he said. Then he took out some weird symbol from around his neck and started chanting.

"Uh...what are you doing?"

"This is part of my religion, Jashin." he said.

"What religion is that?" I asked.

"One that will cleanse and dispose of all heathens. Anything less than destruction is a sin, and if you don't like it you can go to hell!"

"Right... and what's with you?" I asked the guy in the mask.

"That's Kakuzu, he's in charge of the money," said Kisame sitting down on the other end of the table. Kakuzu just glared at me, and made a motion that he wanted to slit my throat.

"He probably wants to kill you," said Sasori wiping what appeared to be blood on his hands.

"Only if she takes any of my money," he said harshly.

"Is fucking money all you care about?" shouted Hidan.

"I wouldn't talk if I were you Hidan, unless you wish to die."

"Are you fucking stupid? I'm immortal I can't die!"

"Is that blood?" I asked pointing to Sasori's hands. He just hid his hands under the table.

"He's been busy making puppets, yeah," said Deidara.

"Okay, that's enough! I don't even want to know what you do around here," I said shaking.

"Oh, so you don't want to know that I make clay sculptures in my free time, yeah?" he asked me.

"Is that why you have mouths on your hands?" I asked him.

"They have many 'other' uses as well," he said grinning.

"I really don't want to know..." I said. Then the silence was interrupted by a loud scream.

"Hi!" Mai came out of the kitchen with everyone's food. All the guys quickly turned their attention away from me and towards her and her skimpy outfit. She put down several plates for everyone and all the guys started eating.

"Oh, here's yours," she said pretending not to notice me. It was okay...that's all I can say. Then I saw Itachi coming out of the kitchen buttoning his cloak.

"What were you doing in there now?" I asked him.

"It's none of your concern," he said ignoring me.

"He was probably fooling around with Mai again," said Deidara staring at Mai.

"That bimbo? Ew." Itachi sat down next to Kakuzu and continued to ignore everyone as they ate. Then I heard a weird rumbling sound, and a strange plant popped up from the floor.

"What is that?" I said wondering what would pop up through the ground like that.

"Zetsu's back," said Sasori.

"Zetsu?" I looked over at the plant. The leaves separated to reveal a guy with a black and white face with green hair and yellow eyes. And I thought the other guys were scary enough.

"I caught some rabbits outside," he said holding up several dead rabbits.

"You can have them," said Hidan. "No one here wants to eat fucking rotten rodents." Zetsu ignored him and then he looked at me.

"You! Who are you?"

"I'm...Sakura."

"She's new," said Deidara grinning.

**"She looks tasty,"** said Zetsu looking at me. I just hid under my cloak and ignored all of these guys. I couldn't understand why the Pein would have all of these weirdos in his organization, but then again, I also couldn't understand why Naruto was such an idiot either...

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Poor Sakura! How in the world will she survive?

Hope you liked the story so far.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

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**Disclaimer: **No matter how much I wish, I do not own Naruto. (Or Itachi)

Here's the second part of the story.

**Author's Note:** Dialouge from Sakura is plain, _Inner Sakura is in italics_.

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After I was done eating dinner with those freaks, I went back upstairs to the room I had to share with Itachi. Since he was being a jerk, and there was no point in arguing, I slept on the couch that night. And it wasn't even that bad...

_I once again found myself in the dark hall running, and the blood pouring down on me. The screams had become so loud I had to cover my ears. I saw the light, and I heard the voice calling for me._

_"Come to me...my love." _

_"I'm trying!" I shouted over the screams. I kept running faster and faster until there was a flash of white light. The shadow was coming closer and I reached out to touch their hand. _

_Their hand was a regular human hand, and the shadow was wearing a dark black cloak. From what I saw, I knew this was a man. But he was wearing a mask like the black hops agents. He reached out to touch my face and then..._

I woke up in cold sweat on the floor. Itachi was staring down at me.

"You're not well," he said putting a wet cloth on my head.

"Did I wake you up or something?" I asked.

"You wouldn't stop screaming," he said.

"I'm sorry. But I keep having the same dream over and over again." Itachi didn't speak.

"Just go back to sleep," he said yawning. I got back on the couch and tried to fall asleep, but I was afraid I would have the dream again. Itachi just stared at me.

"What now?" he asked.

"I can't sleep," I said staring at the ceiling. Itachi sighed.

"That's your problem, not mine," he said going back to bed. He fell asleep pretty quickly, but I was too afraid to fall asleep again.

* * *

**Meanwhile back in Konoha...**

**Naruto's Point of View:**

Shikamaru and I were at the hokage's office.

"You're probably wondering why I called you here," she said. I was trying to pay attention to what she was saying, but it was pretty hard to listen to a woman with huge boobs. Shikamaru nudged me in the arm.

"Naruto, pay attention!" Tsunade took out a bingo book and handed it to us.

"Turn to page 37," she said sitting on her desk. Shikamaru turned to page 37, and what we found on that page, wasn't something we expected.

"Is that...Sakura-chan?" I asked.

"One of our black ops agents saw her last night with two missing nin," said Tsunade. "Apparently, they were after you, Naruto."

"Me?" I asked "Why?"

"I don't know, but Sakura went with them. So your mission is: get Sakura back."

"Sounds way too troublesome to me..." said Shikamaru. "But we'll do it anyways..."

"Just don't get yourself killed. You will be up against class-S criminals," she added.

"Yeah, that creep Itachi and his weird friends," said Shikamaru.

"Huh?"

"They start on page 28," said Shikamaru. I pulled out my bingo book, and these guys were pretty creepy. I couldn't understand why Sakura would join these weirdos, especially that creep, Itachi.

I didn't like the looks of this guy. This was the guy that had single handedly killed the entire Uchiha clan. I can see why Sasuke wanted to kill him, but I don't think he'd be able to beat this guy.

"All right. We're ready to go, but were going to need some help," I said.

"He's got the right idea. Besides, this is an S-ranked mission. We might not come back alive," said Shikamaru.

"Well, good luck," said Tsunade. I left with Shikamaru and we set out to go find anyone who was willing to help us with this mission.

Back at the Akatsuki Headquarters...

After several hours of staring at the ceiling, morning finally came and I got up to go take a bath. I poured some lavender shower gel into the water and it made tons of little tiny bubbles.

The water was nice and warm and I just closed my eyes and relaxed. After the lack of sleep, this was exactly what I needed. Twenty minutes later I got out of the bathtub and was drying off my hair. Then to my horror the door opened!

"Deidara! Get out!" I screamed. Deidara and Sasori were standing in the doorway and they were both looking at my body. I quickly covered myself up with a towel, but it was too late: they already saw everything!

"Well, well, you have a nice body, yeah," said Deidara coming closer.

"Get out!" I screamed. "You guys are such perverts!"

"Aw come on, we just take off the towel again and we'll leave," he said smirking at me.

"No! Go away!" I didn't know what to do, and both of them were coming closer.

"Get away from me!" They had me cornered until...

"What is going on here now?" Itachi had just woken up and apparently all my screaming woke him up.

"Oh, nothing...we just saw Sakura naked," said Deidara looking me up and down.

"Get out," said Itachi. They quickly left, and as they were leaving Deidara just had to say something stupid.

"Tell us when you're taking a shower so we can watch next time," he said grinning at me.

Itachi turned around and glared at him, and he quickly followed Sasori out of the bathroom. Itachi stood in the doorway and glared at me. Then he walked towards me and slapped me in the face.

"Ow! What was that for?" I said looking up at him.

"You were careless," he said staring at me. "Now get out, I need to use the bathroom." I took my clothes and left the bathroom. I locked the door to the room so those perverts wouldn't come back in, and I got dressed in my robes.

'I've been here one day, and I already hate this place!' I thought to myself. 'But...I'm doing this for Sasuke. I have to save him.'

I went downstairs to eat breakfast and when I entered the dining room, Sasori and Deidara were both staring at me.

"Well, I see you decided to come down. Tell me, are you going to do a strip tease for all of us?" said Deidara looking at me. "Because if you do, I'll let you stay in my room tonight, yeah."

"Fuck off! Keep your dirty thoughts to yourself!" I sat down away from everyone else and Mai came out wearing short shorts and a tiny top that was really low cut. As she walked by, she kept giving me an evil glare.

"What the hell is your problem?" I said looking at her.

"You know damn well what it is."

"Is this about Itachi? Because I'm not interested in that creep." She just flicked me off and walked away.

"Slut!" I coughed under my breath.

"What was that?" she said stopping dead in her tracks.

"You heard me," I said darkly.

"Well, you're a bitch!" Then she walked towards me and stared at me directly in the eye.

"Do you want to fight me?" I asked her. "Because if you do, I guarantee that you'll die. You don't know what I'm capable of." She slowly backed away from me. "Good. Now get out of here, and leave me alone," I said sending her a nasty look. She strutted out of the room and I finished eating my breakfast.

'I won't be surprised if she starts spitting in my food next,' I thought.

After I finished eating I got up and ignored all the whistles from the guys.

"Filthy pigs," I muttered. Later on I took a walk around the headquarters. I found a training area that had several dummies, kicking posts and a small arena for battling. I practiced my genjutsu, and throwing weapons for a few hours.

Eventually I got bored with that too, and continued wandering around the building, trying to get more familiar with the place. I opened one of the doors and it led to a narrow passage I've never seen before. It went down for a couple hundred feet until I reached a small door. I opened it and inside was a prison cell. I went up to the cell and what I saw was very shocking.

"Gaara? How long have you been in there?" Gaara just stared at me with his cold eyes.

"A month."

"They haven't starved you...have they?"

"I don't need food," he said plainly. Shukaku has been keeping me alive. I've been sitting here the whole time."

"You haven't slept either by the looks of it," I said.

"I don't sleep. By the way, what are you doing here?"

"I joined the Akatsuki...because I want to save Sasuke from Orochimaru. If I stay here, I can get stronger and I'll be strong enough to save him," I said. Gaara just sat there and listened with interest.

"Sounds interesting. Tell me when you get Uchiha-san back. I want to have a rematch with him again," he said lying down on the cold hard floor.

"I will," I said. "I'll be back later," I said leaving. Gaara said nothing. I went back to my room to find the sheets from Itachi's bed were all over the floor. Then I saw Mai come out of the bathroom. She ran past me without looking, wearing her skimpy outfit. Itachi came out of the bathroom with his shirt off.

"I don't even want to know," I said lying down on the couch. Itachi just ignored me and remade his bed. I tried to ignore Itachi, but for some reason, I couldn't stop staring at him. He did look really good with his shirt off.

'Why did I just think that? This is Itachi we're talking about. The biggest creep of all time. Not to mention that he slaughtered his entire clan!'

"I can see you staring at me," he said.

'How could he have known?'

_'Aw come on! How could anyone not see that you're staring at hm!'_

'Stay out of this!'

_'I would, but I can't stop staring at him either! He's just way too hot!'_

'Go away!' Inner Sakura was sent to Mars in one punch.

"Sakura?" Itachi was still waiting for my reply.

"Sorry," I said. "I didn't mean to," I said.

"I really don't care," he said lying down on the bed.

"I have a question," I said. Itachi sat up and stared at me. "If you don't like Mai, then why did you sleep with her again?" Itachi sighed and put his shirt back on.

"It's complicated."

"So you're just using her?" I asked.

"I told you that it's none of your business."

"Fine." I turned around and then I fell asleep on the couch.

_Once again I was running down the hall, covered in blood. The light came so quickly I didn't even hear the screams. The man in the black cloak and mask came out of the shadows once again._

_"My love," he said touching my face. I trembled with fear. I had no clue who this guy was, and he was beginning to creep me out. I just stood there as he gently pushed me against the wall. _

_"Who are you?" I asked. He didn't answer._

_"You will find out soon," he said softly. I reached for his mask and then..._

I woke up on the floor again, sweating. What was my mind trying to tell me? Why did I keep having this same dream? Itachi was staring at me again, checking to see if I had a fever.

"Why do you keep screaming in your sleep?" he asked me.

"I...I don't know."

"Stop doing it. It's getting annoying."

"You could be a bit nicer to me," I said sitting up. Itachi just glared at me.

"I don't give sympathy to others," he said. "It makes a person weak." He got up and he went back to lie down on the bed. I got up and for the next few hours, I just sat on the couch drawing on a couple pieces of paper that were lying around. Itachi walked over to see what I was doing.

"What's that supposed to be?" he asked me.

"It's a tree."

"It doesn't look like one."

"I'm not done yet," I said as I continued to draw. Then I heard a knock on the door. Kisame was at the door.

"Just wanted you to know that Mai is serving dinner again," he said walking away. Itachi and I went down stairs to dinner to find everyone else was already there. Hidan was praying to who knows what, Kakuzu kept making death threats to anyone who tried to touch his money, and Sasori and Deidara kept staring at my chest.

Mai came out and she kept flirting with Itachi, but he just ignored her. He was just using her for his own selfish reasons. I don't think he even cares she exists. In fact, I don't think he's ever experienced true love. But I haven't either. I wished that I was back home and Sasuke was with me, but I knew in my heart that's not going to be happening anytime soon.

I sat there, and I sighed. Itachi looked over at me.

"What? Nothing's wrong, if that's what you're asking."

"I wasn't going to ask you that. I wanted you to pass me the carrots."

"Oh, here," I said handing him the bowl of steamed carrots. After I ate, I left and went back upstairs to my room. I locked the bathroom door and changed into a tank top and shorts, which is what I have been sleeping every night now that I'm staying here. I got on the couch and laid down, hoping I wouldn't have that dream again.

The door opened and Itachi came in. I pretended to be asleep, but he knew that I was still wide-awake.

"Stop pretending to be asleep," he said. "I know you're awake." I opened my eyes and looked over at him.

"I still can't sleep," I said.

"Well, that's not my problem," he said changing.

"Will you at least go into another room and do that?" I asked him.

"Just cover your eyes then," he said turning around to look at me. I covered my eyes.

"You can open your eyes now," he said. I opened my eyes and he was wearing a pair of shorts and a black shirt.

"I guess I should tell you the real reason why I keep screaming in the middle of the night." Itachi sat there emotionless and I told him about my dream. He didn't seem interested, but he never really cared about what I had to say anyways.

"Hn. Someone is obviously using a genjutsu. Either that, or you caught something."

"I'm just so sick of having that same dream over and over again," I said laying down.

"Would you rather have the bed?"

"After what you and Mai did in it? I don't think so?"

"We did that on the couch," he said plainly.

'Ew,' was all I could think of.

"All right." I walked over to the bed and got under the covers. It was a lot better than the couch. As I turned to lay down on my side, Itachi was still on the bed.

"I thought you were taking the couch."

"I never said I would," he said.

"So we're sharing a bed?" Itachi just ignored me and got under the covers and fell asleep. I never could understand how someone who killed his entire clan could still sleep soundly at night. I just ignored him and fell asleep.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three

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**

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Naruto. (But I do own the plot). And I still wished I owned Itachi!

**Author's Note: **In case you are confused (which I hope you're not), _dreams are also italicized_.

* * *

_For once, I actually had a semi-normal dream. I dreamt I was at a party, and everyone kept asking me to dance with them. I ended up turning every guy down until I saw a familiar face from across the room. Itachi was standing there holding a red rose. _

_"Shall we dance?" he asked me. I took his hand and we danced for hours until it was time to leave. We walked down a winding path, and when we got to what was supposed to be my house, we sat together on the step. I closed my eyes, and Itachi leaned in..._

I woke up and Itachi was still sleeping.

'Why did I dream something like that?' Then it hit me: Do I like him or something? No way! I looked over at him again. He was a good-looking guy, and next to Sasuke he had to be one of the cutest guys I've ever seen.

'I did not just think that!'

_'Yes you did! You want him so bad!'_

'No I don't!'

_'Admit it! You like him!'_

Okay, I admit it; I did think he was cute. I gently brushed his hair out of his eyes, and he tossed and turned a bit. Then he opened his eyes!

"What are you doing now?" he asked me.

"Uh...nothing," I said.

"Did you have that dream again?"

"No, what gave you that idea?"

"Never mind," he said falling back asleep. I sat there and I watched Itachi sleep. I didn't get why I was developing all these feelings for him, but it was happening against my will.

No matter how I hard I tried to push him out of my mind, he wouldn't leave! Then I got up and looked out the window at the cold black sky. And at that moment, I wondered if Sasuke was out there somewhere, looking up at the sky too.

* * *

**Somewhere out in the woods...**

**Naruto's Point of View:**

"Which way now Neji?" I asked him. Shikamaru and I got Kiba, Akamaru and Neji to join us in the search for Sakura. But finding the Akatsuki headquarters was becoming so frustrating!

"I think it's this way," he said pointing north.

"How do you know? Why would they be out in the middle of the freezing tundra?" said Kiba.

"Bark!" Akamaru barked in agreement.

"Well then, Kiba...if your so smart, how about you sniff out a trail for us or something."

"That doesn't sound like a bad idea," said Shikamaru. "Sakura has only been gone for two days, so all Kiba and Akamaru have to do is follow her scent."

"Well, don't look at me, Akamaru is the one to do it. Hey boy, can you sniff out Sakura for us?"

"Bark."

"He says he needs one of her belongings so he can track her," said Kiba speaking for Akamaru.

"Well, Sakura-chan gave me this rag to blow my nose," I said handing him a rag. Kiba reluctantly accepted it, and Akamaru sniffed it. By the looks of things, Akamaru could smell her and started to head east.

"Follow that dog!" I said boldly. The four of us followed Akamaru for hours until we came by a waterfall. Akamaru walked along the edge of the pool over the unsteady rocks, and disappeared behind the waterfall. We followed Akamaru though endless passages of caves until we came out into a thick pine forest. And all we could do was continue on.

* * *

**Back at HQ...**

**Sakura's Point of View:**

I woke up the next morning to find that Itachi was staring at me.

"What is it?" I said sleepily while rubbing my eyes.

"Leader-sama wants to see us, so hurry up and get dressed."

"Aw, just five more minutes..." I said laying back down. Itachi grabbed me and threw me off the bed.

"Ow! What is wrong with you?"

"Just shut up and get dressed," he said leaving the room. I quickly changed into my robes and left the room to find Itachi and Kisame waiting for me.

"About time you got your lazy ass up," said Kisame glaring at me.

"Shut up," I said following them to Pein's office. When we got inside, there were several people tied up in the back corner of his office.

"Nice of you to come." Then Pein looked at me. "Zetsu was out last night, and he found some friends of yours," he said pointing to the shadows. I walked over to find Naruto, Kiba, Akamaru, Neji and Shikamaru were tied up with cloths over their mouths, except Akamaru who was muzzled.

I went over to Naruto and took the rag that was over his mouth. But he wasn't exactly happy to see me.

"Sakura! What were you thinking joining these creeps!" he shouted at me.

"I'm sorry..." I said.

"You owe us all an explanation!"

"I did it because...I want to save Sasuke."

"Sasuke! You mean you still haven't gotten over that jerk?"

"You don't understand! Orochimaru's brainwashed his mind!" I argued back.

"Relax, Sakura." Pein came towards me and looked down at Naruto. "I'll take it from here."

"What are you going to do?" said Naruto. "Because I'm ready to take you on!"

'Naruto...you think after six years of being a ninja he'd know how to choose his battles...'

Pein turned to Itachi and Kisame.

"Take all of them down to the dungeons...except the kyuubi." Itachi and Kisame grabbed everyone else and dragged them down to the dungeons.

'Well...at least Gaara will have some company now.' I thought to myself.

"Sakura...go with them. I need to talk to the boy alone."

"Yes Leader-sama." I followed Itachi and Kisame down to the dungeons. We untied my friends and put half of them in one cell with Gaara, and the rest of them had a separate cell.

"Sakura! You traitor! How could you do this to us?" said Kiba growling at me. I wasn't trying to show any emotion, but I couldn't help but feel a few tears fall from my eyes.

"Sakura!" Kisame and Itachi were ready to leave.

"I'll be there in a minute." Itachi walked up to me and stared me straight in the eyes.

"Then I'm staying," he said. He slammed me up against the wall and I thought I felt my head bleeding.

"If you even so much as think about helping them escape, I swear that you will suffer a fate worse than death."

"Wha-what are you going to do to me?"

"Allow me to demonstrate. Mangekyou sharingan!" The three dots in his eyes joined at the middle, and everything changed drastically. I was down on my hands and knees, and Itachi was repeatedly stabbing me in the back with a katana. I screamed in pain.

"Please...stop it! Don't do this to me!" I screamed.

"No." I began to cry in pain as he continued to stab me. Then I was on the floor of the dungeons trying to breathe.

"And that's just five seconds of it. The real thing would be much, much worse. Now, get up." I slowly got up and looked at my friends. They had all witnessed what just happened, and they were all still in shock.

"I promise...I'll come back later," I said as Itachi grabbed me by the collar of my cloak.

"Let's go, Kisame is waiting." I followed Itachi out of the dungeons and back up to the main hallway.

"Why did you do that?" I said looking up at him with hate in my eyes. "Why do you have to treat me like this?"

"I told you I don't give any sympathy towards anybody."

"Not even Sasuke?"

"No. And if you mention his name again, you know what will happen." The thought of going through the Mangekyou sharingan again was frightening just thinking about it. The three of us went back to the dining room again to find most of the guys were gone except Zetsu.

"Where did they-"

"They're all on missions. Ours is tomorrow, and you're coming with us," said Itachi as we sat down. As usual, Mai came out of the kitchens wearing another skimpy number.

This time she was wearing the shortest skirt I've ever seen with high heels, and a corset top that looked about two sizes too small. She walked over to Itachi and started flirting with him while he ate. But he just ignored her. That girl was so clueless! Then she started glaring at me.

"Stay away from him," she said as she played with his hair.

"So Itachi, did you have a good time yesterday?" No answer.

"We can do it again if you'd like," she said giggling.

"Maybe you should leave him alone," I said out loud.

"Maybe you should get a hat to cover that giant forehead of yours," she said laughing at me. I took out a kunai and threw it at her. She screamed as it cut a piece of her hair off.

"You're crazy!" she screamed at me.

"That's right. I'm crazy. But at least I'm not some stupid bimbo in tacky outfits!"

* * *

It's about to be a girlfight! I think we already know who will win this one. The next chapter will be out shortly. :) 


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four**

**

* * *

**

**Disclaimer:** (Same as before, I do not own Naruto, especially not Itachi.)

* * *

**Itachi's Point of View:**

While I ignored their senseless bickering, so many thoughts were running through my mind. I looked at Sakura through the corner of my eye. Why would she go out of her way to get Mai to leave me alone? And why does she keep looking at me? But even if she does like me, I could care less.

I don't have time to deal with useless things like love. I don't even care for Mai. She's just someone I fool around with. But Sakura is different. I can't quite put my finger on it, but there's something about her... The only problem is I don't know what it is!

Why do I feel so different when I'm around her? I always feel like I have to protect her from doing something stupid. And those eyes...they're hypnotizing. Even if they are full of hate for me, I can't help but get mesmerized looking in her green eyes...

I immediately snapped out of my mood when I saw Mai trying to pull Sakura's hair. But there wasn't much to pull. Her hair wasn't even past her shoulders. But then Sakura pulled out a kunai and cut off Mai's hair. And like the little annoying girl she was, she ran back in the kitchen crying.

"And that's why you don't mess with me," she said smirking proudly. I was impressed. It wasn't the fact that she cut off Mai's hair. She actually had the nerve to do it. Now I'm starting to get a feel of how strong she really is. But I won't know until I see her in action during our mission tomorrow.

* * *

**Sakura's Point of View:**

I sat there with most of Mai's hair in my hand, and I threw it in the trash. She had it coming to her. Besides, she's here to cook, not fool around with guys. After I finished eating, I took some leftovers from the kitchen and brought them down to my friends. I wasn't going to let them starve. But Itachi insisted that he goes with me! I wasn't quite sure what his problem was, but he was starting to get on my nerves!

"Why do you keep following me?" I asked after we left the dungeons. He didn't say anything.

"Well? Are you going to answer me or not?" He stayed silent.

"I take that as a 'no'?" Itachi still said nothing. 'Grrr! I want to kick his ass!' I thought, or that's what my inner Sakura was thinking...

"If those ninja escape, they'll come back with more of them, and the location of our headquarters will be revealed," he said. "We've already relocated twice last year, we can't afford to keep moving around like we have been."

"Oh, is that why you've been acting like a jerk?" I asked. But I regretted what I said when Itachi slammed me up against the wall again.

"Don't ever talk to me like that again," he said. I just stood there, not even bothering to get free. There was no way I'd be able to get away from him. What he said next was what really shocked me.

"You know, for someone who's as careless and as foolish as you...you have nice eyes," he said.

"Huh?" He let me go and I just stood there as he walked away. 'Why would he say that? Unless...No way! He's too cold to ever like anybody! And he's threatened to torture me with the Mangekyou sharingan! I can't let myself fall for that bastard! No way!'

I went back upstairs and up to my room. Maybe a bubble bath would calm me down. But before I started it, I locked the bathroom door. I don't want anyone else coming in, not even Itachi. While I was taking a bath, I relaxed and closed my eyes. Before I knew it, I had fallen asleep...

_I was running down the dark hallway again. Only this time the blood was knee deep and I was completely covered in blood. The screams had become so numerous and so frightening that I wanted to get out. I saw the light and I kept running and running until I reached the light. The light became a cold stone room and the man came up to me and gently pushed me against the wall. _

_"My love..." he whispered as he touched my cheek. I still had no idea who this guy was! I reached for his mask, and began to untie it. The mask slowly slid down to reveal his eyes. But when I saw them, I realized who it was. _

_"Orochimaru?" The mask fell off to reveal his ghost white face. I screamed and he took out a kunai. He stabbed me in the chest and..._

I woke up in the bathtub and heard knocking on the door.

"What are you doing now?" said Itachi through the door. "I need to use the bathroom."

"I'll be out in a minute..." I said still in shock. I got out and dried off and put my clothes back on. I opened the door to see Itachi glaring at me.

"About time," he said going in the bathroom. He closed the door behind him and locked the door. He came out a few minutes later blowing on his nails.

"Painting your nails again?" I asked him as I laid down on the bed. Itachi didn't say anything. He just gave me one of those 'isn't it obvious' looks. He sat down on the other end stared at me.

"Would you please stop doing that?" I asked politely. Itachi closed his eyes and sighed.

"What's wrong?" I asked him.

"Nothing."

"Oh. You looked like something was wrong," I said looking at him. Itachi ignored me as he laid down on the bed next to me. He took out a book from the shelf next to the bed and started reading.

"Itachi."

"What?" he said harshly.

"I...I had the dream again," I said softly. "I found out who the guy was." Itachi put the book down and turned to look at me.

"Who is it?" he asked plainly.

"You're going to hate me for telling you...but it was..." I paused for a second, and Itachi glared at me. "Orochimaru..." I said quietly.

Itachi activated his sharingan and pushed me off the bed.

"I don't even want to hear what happened after that," he said glaring down at me. I was on the floor, and my whole body ached.

"He was getting ready to kill me!" I shouted back at him. He deactivated his sharingan and helped me off the floor. He looked at me for a second and felt my forehead.

"You're not sick. It's genjutsu. Someone is using it on you."

"But why?" I asked him.

"Who knows? But whoever it is, they want you dead."

"Great, it's already bad enough that half the people here want me dead! I might as well just kill myself now!" I said with frustration. I pulled a kunai from my pouch, when Itachi grabbed my arm holding the kunai and pinned me to the floor.

"Why can't you let me just put myself out of my misery?" I shouted. I hated this place so much!

"Don't kill yourself. It's not worth it," he said looking down at me.

"Why do you even care? You've threatened to kill me too," I said.

"I threatened to give you a fate worse than death," he said correcting me.

"Could you at least get off me?" I said.

"No. I don't feel like it."

"What's that supposed to mean?" I said glaring up at him. Then he put his finger over my mouth.

"You talk too much," he whispered. 'What was he doing? I thought he hated me? But what if...no! He doesn't like me! But he did tell me I had nice eyes...but then again, everyone says I have nice eyes.'

_'He wants you! He so wants you right now!'_

'Now is not the time!'

I began to grow nervous as Itachi's face got closer to mine until we were just a few inches apart. I was about to speak, but he wouldn't let me.

"Don't speak," he said seductively. I knew what he was going to do, so I closed my eyes. Then I felt his lips gently meet with mine. As soon as he pulled away, I opened my eyes.

He got off me and left the room. I was still lying there on the floor, tracing around my lips where he kissed me. 'Was this guy for real?' I wasn't so sure about Itachi. First he tries to torture me, and then he kisses me? This guy was so hard to figure out. Its like he has two personalities...

I got up and left the room. I was beginning to wonder what happened between Naruto and Pein...

I knocked on the door of Pein's office to find that he was bound and gagged with a note stuck to his forehead.

_Dear Sakura, _

_I escaped, and I'll become the next hokage! Believe it! Take care of yourself, and don't let that creep Itachi push you around. _

_Naruto._

"He managed to escape? That butthead." I was pretty proud of him for making it out of here alive, but now there was the task of freeing everyone else without Itachi noticing. I untied Pein and he gave me a pretty mean look.

"I'm sorry Leader-sama," I said.

"When I find that brat I am going to torture him to no end!"

"So what do we do now?"

"Well, tomorrow I need you, Itachi and Kisame to break into Orochimaru's hideout and steal a scroll."

"Orochimaru's hideout?"

"That is what I just said. Itachi and Kisame know the location, so you have nothing to worry about." I left his office and found Itachi and Kisame talking quietly at the table in the dining room.

I really wished I didn't have anything to worry about, but Sasuke's face still wouldn't leave my mind. I sat down next to Itachi and he didn't care that I was even in the room. Mai came out wearing a knee length skirt and a corset top. I guess she decided to wear more clothes for once...

"Here," she said in a depressed tone. I guess she still must be mad about her unexpected haircut.

"Are you okay?" I asked her. She glared at me.

"This is all your fault! You cut my hair off, and now Itachi won't talk to me!"

"But he never actually talked to you before anyways..." She screamed at me and left the room in frustration. I was beginning to wonder if anyone found out that Itachi kissed me...

I just sat there and stared at my food. I wasn't even that hungry. I couldn't get either of the Uchiha brothers out of my mind, and I was torn between the two of them. But I was really excited to see Sasuke tomorrow. I know he would be the enemy, but not one day has gone by where I haven't thought of him. Itachi turned to look at me.

"You should eat."

"But I'm not hungry," I said.

"Suit yourself, but you're not going to get another meal until after our mission." I decided to eat anyways, no matter how much sadness and confusion I felt. After I ate, I slowly made my way up to my room. Itachi came in a few minutes later and sat down on the couch.

"I heard your friend escaped."

"So? I didn't have anything to do with it," I said going into the bathroom to change into my pajamas. I came out a few minutes later. Itachi walked up to me and pushed me against the wall.

"Just remember what I told you earlier." I looked up at him in fear. "If you even think about letting the rest of your friends go, I'll use the Mangekyou sharingan on you again." He let me go and I fell to the floor.

'Two hours after he kissed me and he's already back to making threats to torture me? This guy just has to be bipolar or something!'

_'The poor guy is confused. He doesn't know whether he wants to do you or kill you.'_

CRASH! Inner Sakura was punched all the way to outer space!

I laid down on the bed and Itachi stared at me with his red eyes from across the room.

"Remember what I told you," he said. I nodded and fell asleep. Itachi slept on the couch that night, since he didn't feel like sharing a bed with me.

Two hours later I got up and Itachi was sound asleep. I made a clone of myself and had her sleep in the bed in case Itachi should wake up. I quietly left the room and made my way down to the dungeons.

"Gaara?" Gaara was awake, and he got up.

"Sakura? What do you want?"

"Listen, I came to help you guys escape. Naruto has already left." Kiba and Neji woke up.

"Naruto escaped?" asked Neji.

"Yes, and I'm gonna help you guys get out too."

"I thought you were a no good dirty traitor," said Kiba as he woke Shikamaru up.

"You thought wrong," I said. I got the keys hanging from the wall and unlocked their cells.

"Now what?" asked Shikamaru sleepily. "None of us can fit through those windows." Gaara used the sand to break the bars and they went through one at a time.

"Thank you Sakura," said Kiba. "And I'm sorry I called you a traitor."

"I promise I'll try to get out of here soon," I said. "Just be careful not to get yourselves captured again. And do not tell anyone the location of this place. I don't want Itachi to try and torture me again."

"We'll keep your secret safe," said Neji. They all gave me a smile, showing they understood, and Gaara put the bars to the window back the way they were, and they left. I locked the cells, and used a genjutsu to make it look like they were all still locked up. Itachi was still sleeping, which was really fortunate for me. But it would only be a matter of time before he found out that they were gone.

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Hope you all liked chapter four! Reviews are appreciated.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five**

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**

Itachi woke me up at three in the morning so we could leave for our mission. It only took me twenty minutes to get ready, but that was only because Itachi threatened to beat me if I didn't hurry up.

We met Kisame on the top of the mountain outside and set off for Orochimaru's hideout. I had remembered in previous years that the sound five had been killed, but Sasuke was still under his control, and Orochimaru was still very much alive. We traveled for several hours straight through thick forests until we reached the desert.

"How much further?" I asked Itachi.

"We have to cross the desert, and then we have several hundred miles to go until we are even close to the sound village." I sighed. I wasn't looking forward to crossing a desert, but I would have to make the best of it.

"Get moving," said Kisame pushing me. I fell into the sand, and he kicked me.

"Get up!" I got up and followed them across the desert. It may have only been three in the afternoon, but the sun was still pretty strong, and it was so hot out! I put on my hat to protect my face from the sun and continued running. After an hour I grew tired until I saw a pool of water.

"Itachi, can we stop at that water hole?" I asked him.

"That's a mirage, and we are not stopping."

"But I'm thirsty!" I said.

"Stop your bitching," said Kisame. "We only have a hundred miles to go." These guys were really starting to piss me off. I had finally had enough!

"Look! If you don't find water soon, I'll kill the both of you!" I shouted. Itachi and Kisame both glared at me. Itachi grabbed me by the collar of my cloak and threw me on the ground. He pinned me down and glared at me.

"If you don't stop complaining, I will not hesitate to kill you," he said.

"Get off me!" I shouted. "I'm sick of you pushing me around and telling me what to do!"

"Shut up," he said putting his hand over my mouth. "Now, the less you complain, the sooner we'll be out of the desert." He got off me, and I managed to catch my breath.

I got up and we continued walking. By nightfall we made it out of the dessert and the landscape changed into a field with grass. After another hour of walking we found a small river and I took a drink from the water. I was so exhausted and tired that I passed out.

_Once again I was running down the hallway covered in blood, and trying to tune out those screams of agony and pain. I didn't want to run to the light, but my legs just kept going. When I got to the stone room, Orochimaru took off his mask and threw me against the wall. I screamed as he stabbed me with the kunai and I began to feel myself bleed. _

_"Now, take her away," he said pointing to his henchmen. They picked me up and threw me in a small dark room. I saw another dark shadow enter the room and he slowly approached me. _

_"Get away from me!" But no matter how much I begged and pleaded, the shadow kept coming closer. The shadow knelt down next to me and..._

I felt someone slap my face and I woke up. Kisame had slapped me in the face, and there was a huge red handprint on my face.

"What the hell was that for?" I shouted at him.

"Hey! You should be grateful that you're still alive!" he shouted back. I glared at him. Then I noticed that Itachi was missing.

"Where's Itachi?" I asked sitting up.

"I don't know, he just got up and left."

"What? But why would he do that?"

"How should I know? He doesn't tell me anything." Kisame walked away and I stood up. Then to my horror, there was a huge cut on my stomach. I touched it and I slowly began to bleed. I started shaking and fell to the ground. I gasped in fear as I began to cough up blood.

"What...what's happening...to me?" I said weakly. Kisame turned me on my side and gave me some water.

"Stop complaining and just drink the water," he said holding a small canteen up to my lips.

"But...how did I get this?" I showed him the cut. He didn't react at all.

"Do you stab yourself in your sleep or something?"

"No! Orochimaru did this to me!" He didn't really believe what I said and just sat down while I laid on the cold hard ground bleeding. Itachi came back a few minutes later and knelt down next to me. He took out some bandages from a pocket under his cloak and began wrapping up my wound.

"What did you do?" he asked me.

"My dream...Orochimaru..."

"Hn. It doesn't seem possible. But he knows thousands of jutsus, and has a few followers capable of genjutsu like this."

"But it wasn't an illusion! It was real! I felt that kunai go right through me, and I even have a bruise on my elbow from where he pushed me!" Itachi examined it.

"That could be from anything."

"Maybe it was from where you pushed me against the wall the other day!" I said glaring up at him. Itachi looked down on me with pure anger in his red sharingan eyes. But I didn't back down. I'm not going to let this creep push me around!

Itachi's Point of View:

There was definitely something wrong with Sakura. I don't understand how she could get such a deep wound while she was unconscious.

Why would anybody want her dead anyways? She doesn't have any special abilities excpet medical ninjutsu, she's not a demon, and she's annoying! But for some reason, I can't help but want to protect her. But she makes me want to kill her every time she disobeys me! I just sat there watching her cough up more blood. I took out a rag and wiped her mouth.

"Are you going to be able to keep going?" I asked her.

"Don't worry...about me. I'll be fine." She tried sitting up, but I made her lay back down.

"You need to rest."

"But, I'm fine...I can get up...watch," she said trying to get up. But I pushed her back down and pinned her to the ground.

"Let me go!" she shouted.

"No. You need to rest."

"I don't need to rest!" She continued to yell at me, but I didn't really pay attention to a word she said. This was why I hated working with girls. They annoy me, and they never stop talking.

"Sakura." She stopped talking and looked up at me.

"What?" she said gritting her teeth.

"Shut up."

"What did you say?" she said growling at me.

"I said, "Shut up." That definitely mad her mad; she was about to slap me in the face, but I caught her hand just in time.

* * *

**Sakura's Point of View:**

"I hate you!" I shouted. Itachi just stared at me, emotionless and put my arm back on the ground. Itachi smirked at me.

"You really hate me, huh?"

"Of course I hate you! You're the lowest pile of scum to ever walk the earth! You killed your clan, you betrayed your village, and you're the rudest, most egotistical guy I've ever met!"

"Are you finished?"

"No! You're also a no-good dirty rotten man whore, and you're an asshole! And on top of that you're also a-" But before I could finish what I had to say, Itachi kissed me again! Kisame didn't really care and walked away. Itachi pulled away and kissed me again, making the kiss rougher and more passionate. He pulled away from me, and I laid there, breathless.

"You need to learn to when stop talking," said Itachi getting up.

I sighed and got up. A few hours later we continued our journey to the sound village. It was around sunrise when we made it, but we would have to wait until its dark to even attempt to steal the scroll. During the whole time we hid in the trees, all I could think about was Itachi's kiss.

But then I snapped back to reality when I saw Sasuke's face in my mind. I was beginning to wonder how he looked now, since I hadn't seen him in so long. I pictured that he would be taller, and more muscular, but still have that dark raven hair and those amazing onyx eyes of his.

"Hey pinkie! Stop drooling and pay attention!" said Kisame glaring at me.

"How about I make you into sushi if you don't shut up!" Itachi sighed.

"How about the both of you be quiet before I kill you." Both of us immediately stopped talking and continued to watch the activity in the village. There were mostly sound ninja walking around, and a few lower ranked ninja talking to each other.

But then a familiar face captured my interest. Walking down the street right under me was none other than Sasuke Uchiha. He was everything I pictured him to be at the age of eighteen.

But the only difference was that he no longer wore a scowl on his handsome face. His face had no emotion what so ever. I guess being under Orochimaru's command for six years can really turn a person evil. But I just couldn't accept the fact that he had been consumed by evil. I knew deep down, there was still some good left in Sasuke, and I was determined to bring it out of him.

After nightfall came, the three of us left our hiding place and went across the small village to a small building. I followed Itachi and Kisame inside, and they lifted up a trapdoor.

"This is a secret entrance we found last time we were here," said Kisame holding up the door. The three of us went down the stairs and ended up in a neatly decorated hallway.

"Keep both eyes open. This place is crawling with sound ninja," said Kisame leading the way. As we walked down the hall, we heard someone coming down the hall. We behind a corner hoping no one would see us. A random sound ninja and Kabuto were walking by talking.

"And Lord Orochimaru promised me a reward if I capture him," said Kabuto.

"Really? Well I hope I get promoted. All Lord Orochimaru cares about is taking over that Uchiha's body."

"Tell me about it. I think he favors Sasuke more than me. And I've been working for him for ten years now!" They kept walking and didn't care to notice that three Akatsuki members were right under their noses. As soon as they were completely out of sight, we kept walking, hoping we could find the location of the scroll.

About five minutes later we entered a small room with scrolls everywhere. Every single shelf in the room had a scroll on it.

"How are we supposed to find the scroll? They all look alike?" I said with frustration.

"Shhh! Keep your voice down," said Itachi lifting me up by the collar of my shirt.

"Sorry..." I whispered. Itachi let me go and I got a chance to catch my breath.

"The scroll we want has red trim around the edges," said Itachi. For the next ten minutes we searched for the scroll. Then I noticed a scroll with red trim on the very top shelf.

"I found it," I said pointing to a scroll on the top shelf. "But I'm gonna need some help." Itachi came up from behind and lifted me up.

"Climb onto my shoulders." I climbed up so my feet were over his head and on his shoulders.

"Can you reach it?" he asked me.

"No. Can you lift me higher up?" Itachi grabbed my ankles and lifted me up higher.

"How about now?" he asked me.

"I got it!" But as soon as I grabbed it, I began to loose my balance. Itachi managed to catch me, and I fell into his arms. I began to blush as soon as I looked up into his eyes.

"I don't mean to interrupt you two, but someone's coming," said Kisame glaring at the both of us. I immediately let go of Itachi and regained my composure.

"Let's take the scroll and get out of here," said Itachi as we jumped out the window. We ran for it as fast as we could, but then the wound in my stomach reopened, and I began to cough up blood. Itachi turned around and went to go help me.

"No! Just get out of here. Don't worry about me!" I said pushing him away.

"Fine. But its your own fault if you die," said Itachi leaving me. I kept coughing up blood, and then I passed out.

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What is Sakura going to do know? Will she die or will someone come to the rescue? And what's with the dream? Find out later... 


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter Six**

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I woke up on the floor of a cold dark chamber, and took a quick look around. There was blood dripping from the ceiling and my cloak was covered in it! I got up and quickly began to realize where I was.

**This was the hallway from my dream!**

But it wasn't a dream. It was the real thing. I really didn't want to get up and walk down to the end of the hall, but my legs began carrying me down the hall. I couldn't stop! As I walked, I heard blood curling screams, and cries of pure terror.

"No! Stop it! Get me out of here!" I shouted as I covered my ears. I began to run down the hall faster and faster. The screams got louder, and the pool of blood was up to my knees! Just like in my dream, I saw the light and I ran towards it.

I entered a small room that had dark walls and just like I dreamt, Orochimaru was standing there wearing a black ops mask.

"Orochimaru." I said glaring at the snake sannin. He took off his mask.

"Surprised to see me?"

"I would have been if you had stayed out of my dreams!"

"Yes. You're probably wondering why I was in your dreams. Well, it starts back a few years ago. You see, I needed a new vessel: someone to be my successor, if you will. Sasuke Uchiha was perfect for the job. Sasuke had top grades, talent, good looks, and the sharingan. If I possessed the sharingan, I would be unstoppable.

But for the past few months, I've discovered another shinobi who has captured my interest. You didn't have the talent or the grades like Sasuke, but there was something else you had that no other ninja could match."

"And exactly what is that?" I said glaring up at him.

"Sakura, isn't it obvious? It isn't your skills or talent that I want."

"Then what do you want?"

"I want...your mind and medical abilities. When I watched the chunin exams, I watched how you defied Ino's mind transfer jutsu. And if I had someone like that here, then conquering the world would be that much easier for me. But in order to get you here, I had Kabuto use a genjutsu to invade your dreams and lure you here."

"So, you used a genjutsu to take over my dreams..." I paused for a moment. "It is true that I can resist the mind transfer jutsu. But I can also resist you as well! There is no way in hell that I would ever work for a deranged, twisted psycho like you!"

"Oh, well that's a shame. Too bad: I would have like to have you as one of my top followers." Then he snapped his fingers and several sound ninja entered the room.

"Lord Orochimaru." The four of them bowed to him.

"Take Miss Haruno to the chamber."

"Yes Lord Orochimaru." They picked me up and carried me out of the room.

"Put me down!"

"Shut up whore!" said one of them pulling at my hair. They threw me into a small dark room and slammed the door shut.

"Have fun," they said waving to me and giving me a sarcastic smile. I gave them a sharp death glare and they left. I couldn't believe this was happening to me! Now I was in a cold dark room all alone. But at least Orochimaru didn't stab me with the kunai like he did in my dream. But the wound was still very real, and I was still bleeding.

"What happens next?" I asked myself. I had forgotten what had happened after I was locked in here. Then to my horror, a door on the other side of the room opened, and a shadow stepped into the room.

"What do you want? Get away from me!" I said trying to hold back my fear. The shadow continued to come closer, each second passing so slowly as they made their way over to me. I kept moving backwards away from the shadow, trying to get away, but then I gasped in horror as I backed into a wall.

"Please, don't hurt me," I said trembling in fear. I closed my eyes. Was this really the end for me? Was I going to die right here? I saw my whole life begin to flash right before my eyes.

My childhood, Ino, the academy, my team, Kakashi-sensei, Naruto, Sasuke, all the missions, the day Sasuke left, more missions, the Akatsuki, and then I saw Itachi's face in my mind. I know he wasn't all that nice to me, but he did care for me. I still remember when we kissed...

I opened my eyes, the face I saw was not what I was expecting.

"Sasuke?" He snapped his fingers and the lights turned on. There standing in front of me was the handsome Sasuke Uchiha. After six years of grieving, we were finally face to face again. But he wasn't happy to see me at all. He was looking down on me in disgust.

"Why did you do it?" he asked taking out his sword. I had almost forgotten that I was a rouge ninja, and I was now working with his brother. But what was I supposed to say to him?

"I...I-"

"Tell me!" he said holding the sword up to my neck.

"I did it...to save you..." I said looking up at him over the sword that was ready to slice my throat.

"You're a filthy traitor," he said putting his sword away.

"You're-you're not going to kill me?"

"I would just be wasting my time." Sasuke walked away.

"Sasuke, wait!" I said running after him.

"Go away," he said.

"No. I-I want to talk to you."

"What is there to talk about?" he said trying to ignore me.

"Its just that...I-I...I still have feelings for you," I said softly. Sasuke turned around to look at me.

"But...why would you say that?"

"Sasuke...I still love you. Everyone else may have lost hope for saving you...but I didn't." Sasuke looked at me with interest.

"I know that deep down...there's still some good left in you," I said looking up into his cold dark eyes.

"Hn."

"Sasuke...please...I want you to come back home. We can go back together. Naruto and the others are waiting for us to come back." Sasuke walked up to me and looked down at me.

"And what if I say no?" he said harshly. I took out a kunai and pointed it towards him.

"If you say no, I-I...I'll have no choice but to kill you!" I said nervously.

"You don't have the guts to do it. We both know you won't do it. Now get out before I decide to kill you." Sasuke was making me so mad! I did all of this for him and he still won't come back!

"No! Do you know what I had to go through just to see you again? I had to take all of Itachi's punches, he used the Mangekyou sharingan on me, and all the guys think I'm a piece of meat! I went through hell for you!" Sasuke just stood there, and I could see a bit of regret in his eyes. Then out of the corner of my eye, I felt a tear drop slowly fall down my cheek.

"My brother...hit you?" I nodded. Sasuke clenched his fists tightly and began to get angry.

"That just gives me another reason to want to kill him! Next time I see him, he's going to regret ever touching you!" I dropped to my knees and began to cry. I couldn't help it: I had been keeping everything bottled up inside, with no one to turn to. Sasuke kneeled down in front of me and held me in his arms.

"I'm sorry...for everything," he whispered in my ear. I rested my head on his shoulder and continued to cry. Then I looked up at him and he was looking down on me. I closed my eyes and felt his lips brush gently against mine. He pulled away and then noticed that I was bleeding.

"Why are you bleeding?" he asked me. I opened my cloak and lifted up my shirt to show the wound I got from my dream.

"I dreamt that Orochimaru stabbed me, and I woke up with this."

"It must have been a special ninjutsu he used. First he uses a genjutsu to invade your dreams, and then the ninjutsu allows him to enter the dream and make everything in that dream happen in real life." I started coughing up blood again.

"Sasuke...what's happening to me? I'm scared."

"The kunai must have had some kind of poison on it when he stabbed you."

"Am I going to die?" I said in between coughs.

"I have an antidote, come with me," he said helping me up. We left the small room and went down a short hall to his room. He took a small bottle from one of the shelves and took out some bandages and a small wet rag.

"You can lie down here," he said having me lie down on his bed. He poured some of the antidote onto the rag and cleaned my wound. It stung a lot, but it was working. Then he changed the bandages.

"Thank you, Sasuke," I said smiling weakly. He leaned in and kissed me again.

"Let's get you out of here," he said helping me get up. I put my cloak back on and he led me to one of the windows.

"One more thing," he said firmly. "If Itachi hits you again, tell me or Naruto. You don't deserve to be hit like that."

"I won't let him," I said giving him a hug. Then Sasuke pulled me into a deep kiss and I felt him wrap his arms around my waist. I felt him lick my bottom lip, hoping to get inside my mouth. I eagerly let him in and moaned as I felt our tongues explore each other's mouths.

While we were kissing, we heard some faint footsteps coming closer to Sasuke's room.

"Here," he said opening the window. "You can leave through the window."

"Will I see you again?" I asked.

"We'll see. Just promise me that you'll make it back safely."

"I will, goodbye." I jumped out the window and Sasuke closed it shut. I had escaped just in time.

* * *

**Itachi's Point of View:**

I kind of felt bad for leaving Sakura behind like that, but she insisted on saving herself. I wasn't too worried about her. She may not be as strong as I am, but I know she's really hiding her true abilities. We were by the river out in the field where we stopped last time when we saw Sakura walking towards us covered in what looked like blood.

"You actually escaped?" said Kisame surprised.

"It wasn't easy, but I did it." I wondered if she was able to do it alone. 'No. She must have had some help.' Then I thought for a minute of who would be stupid enough to help her...Then the answer came to me: Sasuke. My little brother must have helped her escape.

"Did you escape by yourself, or did my little brother help you?" I asked with curiosity. Sakura didn't speak, but I could tell that she was lying. I could see it in her eyes.

"So he did help you?" Sakura slowly nodded.

"How did you know?" she asked.

"I can tell when you're lying to me," I said walking towards her. "And the fact that you're no longer bleeding." She looked down at her wound and quickly covered it up. But then I realized that she was hiding something else...

* * *

**Sakura's Point of View:**

Itachi was looking at me strangely, and then it hit me: Maybe he knows that I freed my friends last night! He began walking towards me until he was just a few inches from me.

"Do you mind?"

"Not at all," he said as he wrapped his arms around my waist.

"Get away from me," I said pushing him away. But he grabbed my wrists and pulled me close to him.

"What else happened between you and Sasuke?" he whispered softly. Sasuke's face came back into my mind, followed by our make out session.

"Well...I...uh..." I don't want to tell Itachi about my personal life! He doesn't need to know!

"Then maybe you could tell me why you're blushing," he said seductively. I was trying not to blush, but I couldn't help it. Why did Itachi make me feel this way?

"I-I don't know..." I said softly. Then Itachi ran his fingers through my hair.

"You kissed Sasuke," he said looking at my lips.

"What? How did you know that?"

"Your lip gloss is smudged," he said sharply.

'Damn it! Why did I have to pick today to wear lip gloss!' But what I don't get is how he would even notice!

_'He's falling for you!'_

'How do you know?'

_'Hello? He kissed you! And he probably wants to do you too!'_

SMACK! Inner Sakura took a second trip to outer space.

Itachi looked down on me and glared at me.

"If you ever go near Sasuke again, I swear that I will not only hurt you, but I will make the Mangekyou sharingan much worse than last time," he said. I looked up and glared right back at him.

"No you won't," I said harshly. "I won't let you hurt me again! And if you hit me again, I'll just hit you back!"

"Fine with me," he said letting me go. "Let's get out of here."

"About time. I'm sick of watching you two argue," said Kisame picking up his sword and putting it on his back.

While we went back through the desert, everything went by quicker. And it was a lot easier to travel at night, but it was freezing even with this cloak on. After traveling for three hours, we found a real oasis.

"We're stopping here for now, but then we have to keep moving," said Itachi sitting down under a tree. I took off my robes and jumped in the water. It was warm and refreshing, and I swam around for a while. Kisame and Itachi just sat there watching as I enjoyed myself. I got out of the water, and I started to shiver. Itachi took my cloak and put it around my shoulders.

"Thanks," I said still shivering. Then Itachi took off his cloak and put it over mine.

"But...aren't you cold?" I asked him.

"No. Just take it." I kept his cloak on and sat under the tree eating fruit from the trees. I hadn't eaten in what seemed like forever, so I took as many pieces of fruit as I could. Itachi came over and sat down next to me.

"What do you want?" I asked as I turned away from him. He put his arm around me and pulled me close to him.

"What are you doing?"

"Enjoying your company."

"Well, can you enjoy my company without sitting so close to me?" He didn't answer. He turned my face towards his and ran his fingers through my hair again.

"You smell like strawberries," he whispered.

"Uh...thank you," I said blushing heavily. He leaned in closer until our faces were an inch apart and gently kissed me on the lips. Itachi pulled away for a second and kissed me again, making the kiss longer and more passionate. I had to admit, he was a good kisser for a guy who hardly shows any emotion.

My eyes opened in surprise as I felt him licking my bottom lip. I didn't mind opening my mouth for Sasuke, but Itachi was different. Not only did he scare me, but he was six years older than me, and that was making me uncomfortable. I tried so hard to keep my mouth closed while we kissed, but he was so determined to get me to open my mouth.

After a few minutes I finally gave in and let his tongue explore my mouth. I just hoped Kisame wasn't watching us. I opened my eyes for a second, and he was sleeping against the tree. I closed my eyes again, and concentrated on how good Itachi's kisses felt. A couple of minutes later Itachi pulled away from me and looked into my eyes.

"Was that better than Sasuke's kiss?" he asked me. What should I say? I liked kissing Itachi, but my feelings for Sasuke are just as strong. But I decided to tell a little fib, since it would make him happy.

"It was," I said smiling up at him.

"Good. That's exactly what I wanted to hear."

The next day we finally made it back to headquarters to find Sasori and Deidara had finally stopped whistling at me. They were too busy drooling over Mai and her new dress to even care. Then Deidara turned to look at me and started grinning.

"So, how was your trip, un?" he said walking up to me.

"Well, let's see...I walked through the freaking desert, I got kidnapped by Orochimaru, and locked in a room where I was supposed to be killed by my former teammate, how the hell do you think it was?" I shouted.

"I was only asking, yeah." Deidara walked away and sat down at the table stared at my chest again. No matter how many layers of clothes I wore, he still didn't take his eyes off my chest!

"Stop looking at my chest you pervert!" That startled him and he quickly moved his eyes away from me and toward the wall. I walked past Mai, who was probably still pissed off at me, and went upstairs to my room. All I wanted to do now was go to sleep.

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Some SasuSaku fluff for the fans! And more ItaSaku! I saw a couple of reviews and I'm happy to see that all of you like this story. It makes me happy too, since I spent so many hours rewritting it. Reviews are appreciated!


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter Seven

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**Author's Note:** The reason this story is getting updated so quickly is because it's prewritten (in case you didn't know). Normally if I was writing it, it wouldn't be updating this fast. A story like this would usually take me about five or six months to write.

Okay, just for the record **I talk too much** so I'll and shut up so you can read the story.

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**When I went into my room, I took off my cloak and threw it over one of the chairs. I laid down on the bed and closed my eyes. I could care less if Itachi wanted the bed. I fell into a dreamless sleep and woke up to an unpleasant sight...

Itachi was staring at me with anger and was holding me by the collar of my shirt.

"Wha? What's going on?" I asked sleepily.

"You know damn well what's going on. I told you that if you even thought about freeing your friends that I would use the Mangekyou sharingan on you!"

He pulled me off the bed so I was standing up. He glared directly into my eyes, but at the last minute I closed them.

"So, you're going to resist me this time? Go ahead and try, but it won't work for long. I know very well that you can't resist me," he said still holding me up by the collar of my shirt. I struggled to get free, but no matter how hard I tried, he wouldn't let go of me.

"Why are you doing this?" I said. "I never did anything to you!" I still kept my eyes closed while Itachi spoke.

"It's complicated," he said.

"Complicated? How the hell could it be complicated? You're probably just-" He put his finger over my mouth. I opened my eyes and he had deactivated his sharingan.

"You didn't let me finish. I've had every reason to be tough on you. If you're going to be in this organization, you need to put all your emotions aside and only think of yourself."

"What do you mean?"

"You need to toughen up if you're going to survive here." So he's been trying to help me.

But why? I need to figure out why?

"So why are you even helping me?" Itachi sighed.

"I don't know..."

"What do you mean you don't know? There has to be a reason why you've been protecting me." Itachi didn't answer. "Then why did you kiss me?" Itachi pretended not to be surprised, but I could tell he was a bit shocked that I would say something like that.

"Can we talk about something else?"

"No! If you like me at all, you're going to let me know," I said making him let go of me. He muttered something, but I had no idea what he just said.

"I didn't catch that, could you say it a bit louder." Itachi sat down on the chair and sighed.

"I like you..." he said looking down on the floor. I stood behind him and put my arms around him.

"Now, that wasn't so hard, was it?"

"No."

"What's wrong now?" I asked.

"I just want you to go away," he said getting up and leaving the room. After he left, I laid back down on the bed and thought of everything that happened so far.

Sasuke's face came to my mind, but then Itachi's face pushed him out.

These past few days had been so confusing and now I was already torn between Sasuke and Itachi. Itachi was very protective of me, while Sasuke was the one that made me feel better after Itachi hit me.

"I don't know what to do," I said. I laid down on my bed and started up at the ceiling. All I wanted to do now was get out of this place as soon as possible. But it would take a long time before I could make it back to Konoha. Within minutes, I fell asleep.

For the next six months, all I did was go on missions, and now I had gotten much stronger than I was before. My hair had gotten longer, but it wasn't bright pink anymore. It was duller color.

My eyes had lost their brightness, and now they were cold and duller than my hair. I had stopped caring about making it back home, and only thought of today. I finally got my own room, so I sat in there on one of the chairs reading when I heard a knock on the door. Itachi was standing there with no emotion on his face.

"We have another mission tomorrow," he said plainly. I nodded and was about to close the door, when he put his foot out in between the door and the doorframe.

"What else do you want?" I asked him.

"Open the door," he said. I opened it and he walked in and sat down on the couch in my room. He motioned for me to sit down next to him and I sat down.

"We haven't been alone together in ages," he whispered.

"What's your point?" I asked plainly. He smirked at me.

"You've changed."

"So what if I've changed. You're the one who said I should," I said looking away.

"I just want you to forget what I told you for one minute, and look at me." I turned to look at him, and he deactivated his sharingan. I was so used to seeing his red eyes, I had forgotten what color his eyes really were. He leaned in and kissed me, but I didn't feel anything at all. I pulled away from him and turned away.

"Turn around," he said trying to get me to look at him.

"No. I don't have time for this," I said getting up. He got up and followed me.

"Go away." Itachi grabbed my arm and gently pushed me against the wall.

"No. _I want you."_

"Let me go before I kill you," I said glaring at him. He didn't listen and started running his finger though my hair.

"Just go away," I said. "I don't feel that way about you anymore." Itachi looked at me, and I thought I saw a hint of sadness in his eyes.

"I still do," he whispered softly. "And someday you will be mine." I pushed him away from me and began running.

'Don't look back,' I thought to myself. 'Just make sure you get home safely.'

* * *

**Itachi's Point of View:**

I didn't stop Sakura from running away. She obviously didn't want me anymore. I turned around and walked back to my room. I slammed the door and felt a surge of anger take over me. I took it out on the furniture and sat down on the floor.

"Why does she make me feel this way?" I said softly. I got up and found a picture of her on the floor next to my bed. I remember I had taken it of her the day before we brought her here. I looked at it for a few minutes and sighed.

"Why did you have to go and betray me like this?" I asked her. I ripped her picture up and threw it away. If she doesn't want me, then I don't want her either!

* * *

**Sakura's Point of View:**

After a day or two of traveling, I had finally made it back to Konoha. I took off my cloak and set a match to it. I didn't want to have anything to do with the Akatsuki ever again. I took off my headband and went into the village. Naruto and Kakashi-sensei were standing at the gates, but not with welcoming arms. Both of them looked upset.

"Why did you come back you traitor?" asked Naruto. I took a deep breath and sighed.

"I came to turn myself in." They took me by each arm and brought me to the hokage's office.

When we got inside, Tsunade was standing there with no expression on my face.

"So, you finally came back and turned yourself in?"

"Yes." I had felt an unbearable amount of guilt take over me. "Just get my punishment over with!" I pleaded. Tsunade smiled at me.

"All right, you asked for it. Come on in," she said to the door. The door opened and three young children walked through the door. One of them I recognized to be Konohamaru.

"What are they doing here?" I said to her.

"These three genin just graduated from the academy, and you will be their new sensei."

"What?"

"You said to get your punishment over with, so I did. You will be watching over Konohamaru, Moeki, and Udon while they go on missions. Their sensei, Ebisu is currently in the hospital right now after a massive nosebleed."

I looked over at the three genin. I wasn't looking forward to this at all!

"Oh yeah, you'll need to change back into your jounin uniform and a new headband as well. Here," she said handing me a new leaf headband.

"But I'm a class-S criminal, I can't accept this!"

"Just take it already." I took it and put it on. I got up and had the three genin follow me.

"All right listen up, I don't know how I got into this, but I'm your sensei now, and we'll start training tomorrow."

"Why tomorrow? Why can't we start today?" said Konohamaru.

"Because, I just escaped from a group of psycho criminals, that's why."

"Okay," said Konohamaru.

"That's fine with us," said Udon sniffling.

"That will give me more time to do my hair then," said Moeki grinning. I sighed and they left. I made it back to my apartment, and the landlady was already pestering at me again.

"And where have you been young lady? You owe me seven months worth of rent!"

"I've been gone on a mission," I said. "I'll have it for you as soon as I get paid." I headed upstairs, and my apartment was the same as I left it. There was a bit of dust, but it hadn't changed at all.

"I'll clean this place later," I said. I went into my bathroom and took a shower. This was the first time in a long time that I didn't have to worry about anyone walking in on me. When I got out, I fixed my hair and I noticed that it already looked a bit brighter. That night I went to bed, relieved that I was finally home.

* * *

**Meanwhile back at Orochimaru's Hideout...somewhere...**

**Sasuke's Point of View:**

It had been six months since I last saw Sakura, and I still couldn't understand why she is still with the Akatsuki. I know she told me she wanted to save me, but I don't want to be saved.

_I'm not going home until I kill Itachi!_

Just the thought of seeing him with Sakura made me sick! I'll probably never understand why Itachi wanted her to join him, but for all I know, he was probably torturing her right now! I immediately snapped back to reality when I heard a knock on the door of my room.

"Come in," I said. Kabuto walked through the door with a smug look on his face.

"Lord Orochimaru wishes to see you," he said. I sighed. Even though working for Orochimaru was making me stronger, I couldn't stand him sometimes!

All he ever talks about is how I'll be his successor, and about himself. Not to mention that he is always buying anti-aging creams that make him look like his skin was stretched out over his face. I followed Kabuto down the hall to a huge room where Orochimaru was. He was sitting in a throne reading a scroll when I came in.

"Sasuke, how are you today?"

"What do you want now, old man?"

"Now, now Sasuke, I just want to talk." I sighed and listened to what he had to say.

"As you know, I am still interested in Sakura's mind and abilities. But someone here was stupid enough to help her escape! So now, I need someone here to go and get her."

"And I'm guessing that person is me?" I asked him.

"Naturally. You we're on the same team as Sakura, and I heard from a friend that you're...interested in her."

"I'm listening."

"I need you to go undercover and get close to Sakura; to earn her trust. Then when the time is right, you will bring her to me." I wasn't sure if I should do this or not, but if it would help me become stronger, then I would.

"What would I get in return?" I asked him.

"If you complete the mission, I will help you and give you more powers beyond what you can comprehend." So now I had a choice; betray Sakura again or sit back and let Itachi win.

"I'll do it," I said.

"Excellent. You will leave for Konoha tomorrow night." I bowed to him and left the room.

* * *

What in the world does that crazy snake sannin have up his sleeve now? Well...you'll find out soon. Reviews are appreciated. 


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter Eight**

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**General Disclaimer:** (No matter how hard I wish, I still do not own Naruto.)

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**Back in Konoha...**

**Sakura's Point of View:**

It was the first day of training, and I had a test planned for my new students. Konohamaru, Moeki and Udon arrived early and sat down talking about what was going to happen.

"Hey Sakura-sensei! Can we start training now?" said Konohamaru with enthusiasm. He reminded me of Naruto when he was younger.

"Yes. But before we start, you'll have to pass a test. You need to steal my headband from me. I don't care how you do it, but if you don't get it done by the end of the day, you'll go back to the academy."

"What? How are we supposed to do that?" asked Moeki.

"Figure it out," I said. They each sat there individually thinking of how they would complete the task.

"All right, enough sitting around. You can begin." The three of them started chasing after me, and I set off for the rooftops of the village. I must have been running for not even a minute when I saw them coming at me one at a time. Udon tried to throw shuriken at me, but he missed and got stuck in a set of bed sheets hanging from the clothesline.

"You'll have to do better than that," I said laughing at him. I turned around to see Moeki and Konohamaru standing there. I had a feeling that they had planned something together since they have been friends for years.

"Ready Moeki?" She nodded at Konohamaru and they came charging at me. I stopped them from reaching me by holding them back. I poked them both on the head and they fell backwards to the ground.

Over the years, my hands had become very dangerous. Just one punch into a flat landscape, and it would look like it was just hit by an earthquake. Now I could also destroy a large boulder with just one finger.

I stood there yawning, when I felt a yank on the back of my head. Udon was trying to get my headband, so I threw him off me. He fell to the ground and I stood there watching as they tried to get up.

"All right Sakura-sensei, lets see you try to escape this," said Konohamaru. The three of them got up and they made several clones of themselves. Before I knew it, they were standing there grinning with my headband in Moeki's hands.

"All right, you pass. I have to admit the three of you work very well together. Much better than my team did."

"You and Naruto didn't get along?" asked Udon.

"No. I was too worried about Sasuke, but he kept trying to do things by himself. And Naruto and Sasuke didn't get along very well at first either. All they did was try to out do each other."

"So do we get a mission now?" asked Konohamaru.

"Tomorrow."

"Aw! But I want a mission now!"

"I have something better for you than a mission. Come on." I had my students follow me until we stopped in front of Irichiraku's ramen bar.

"I'm treating all three of you to ramen," I said smiling. They all cheered with joy and sat down on the stools.

"Order whatever you want, it's on me." We all ordered our ramen and then Naruto came in.

"Hey Naruto! How have you been?" he said with energy.

"I'm great! I just got back from a mission with my students."

"You have students too?" I asked him.

"Yeah, Granny Tsunade made me take in some new genin." Then he looked at my team.

"So you got these three?" he asked.

"Yeah, its part of my punishment for...you know what."

"Well it serves you right for running off with that creep like that," he said glaring at me.

"I'm really sorry for that," I said. "I just wanted to help Sasuke."

"Did it work?" he asked me.

"No. But I did see him six months ago. I got kidnapped and he helped me escape."

"He did what? Why would he do that?" asked Naruto as he ordered his ramen.  
"I'm not sure," I said. Then I smiled when Sasuke's face came back into my mind.

"Why are you smiling?" asked Naruto as he shoved a huge glob of noodles in his mouth.

"Maybe Sakura-sensei is...in love!" asked Moeki grinning. I started blushing.

"Uh...no...I mean...well...I still like him...but..."

"Sakura, are you hiding something else from us?" Naruto asked me.

"Well..." I had Naruto come closer so what I said would be kept secret. "I made out with Sasuke," I said in his ear. Naruto was so surprised, but then he just had to open his big fat mouth.

"You made out with Sasuke? How could you?"

"Naruto! It was supposed to be a secret you baka!" I shouted at him. Konohamaru and his teammates were laughing hysterically as I argued with Naruto about the importance of privacy.

After we all finished eating, I went back to my apartment. We would have our first mission tomorrow. I was having a nice dream when I heard a loud noise coming from my living room. I entered the room and there was broken glass on the floor! I picked it up, and while I did, I found a red rose and a note attached to it.

_Sakura,_

_I've been missing you for so long, please come back to me. Meet me under the oak tree tomorrow at sunset._

_From,_

_Your secret admirer._

"I wonder who would send me this at three in the morning?" I wondered.

'Could Itachi already miss me that much? I hoped it wasn't him. He probably came back to Konoha to bring me back to that hellhole! But maybe it was Sasuke? No. Why would he come all this way just to deliver a note? It just doesn't make sense!'

Then a very scary thought came to mind:

'What if...what if it was Rock Lee?' I shuddered at the thought of him breaking into my apartment and leaving a flower for me. He was a nice guy, but he just wasn't my type. And he wore green spandex! Ew! I just hope whoever gave me this note wasn't using this as an attempt to murder me.

"I'll be there," I said softly.

The next day I brought my team to the hokage's office so she could give us a mission.

"We have an elderly woman who needs some help pulling weeds from her garden," she said. "And this will be a D-ranked mission, so it shouldn't be too difficult for you."

"A D-ranked mission? But that's too easy!" said Konohamaru.

"Look, we all have to start from the bottom and work your way up. Even your grandfather had to do missions like these. It's to build up experience and teamwork, so don't complain."

"All right, but I'm not going to like this," said Konohamaru sighing. We left the hokage's office and went to a small house. An elderly woman explained to us which plants she wanted us to remove, and I had my students begin working while I supervised them. Overall, it was a pretty boring mission, but it was better than when my team had a rescue a cat from a tree...

Around three o'clock in the afternoon, Konohamaru, Moeki and Udon were finished pulling all the weeds from the garden, and the woman invited us in her house for cookies and milk. An hour later we left and I had my team head home.

"We'll have another mission tomorrow," I said. "So get some sleep. I'll expect you to be up early tomorrow."

"What are we doing tomorrow? Babysitting?" asked Udon.

"Maybe," I said.

"But I want to train some more!" said Konohamaru.

"We will soon, if you stop whining."

"Okay, we'll see you tomorrow sensei!" said Moeki smiling. They left and looked out at the sky.

"Three hours until sunset," I whispered. I went back to my apartment and did some cleaning for a while. I hadn't cleaned this place in several months, so I was relieved to get rid of all the cobwebs and dust that was around. I looked at my watch again. It was six thirty. I left my apartment without worrying about how I looked.

If its one thing I learned from being in the Akatsuki, it was this: never let your guard down, not even for a second.

I got to the tree about fifteen minutes early and didn't see anyone there. I sat down in front of the tree and waited for my secret admirer to show up.

"I wonder who it is," I said quietly to myself. I took out a book (not Make out Tactics!) and began to read, but still listening to the noise around me. I looked at my watch again.

"7:15? I wonder what's keeping him." That ruled out Lee as being my secret admirer. He was always a stickler for being on time. I knew it wasn't Naruto or any of the other guys either. They would be on time.

"You always liked to show up early," said a voice. I got up and turned around.

"Sasuke? You sent me the note?" He smirked and took out something from his pocket. It was a beautiful white lily. I took it from him and we sat down next to each other under the tree.

"So why are you here?" I asked him. "Aren't you worried that you'll get caught?"

"No." Then he turned to me. "I came here because I wanted to see you again. And now that you're here, I'm glad that you're okay."

"You were worried about me?"

"I was worried that Itachi hurt you."

"He hasn't hit me since the day I saw you. But now I'm afraid he's going to come after me since I escaped."

"How did you escape?" he asked me.

"I just took off and ran. Itachi was trying to kiss me so I pushed him away and left."

"He tried to...kiss you?" He asked hoping his brother hadn't kissed me. I looked away with sadness in my eyes.

"He already did..." Sasuke made me face him. I felt really bad for what I did, and I was afraid of what he was going to say next.

"Please tell me that's all he did to you," he said.

"It is," I said.

"Good. I don't want him here. Not while I'm around," he said pulling me closer to him. I felt myself blushing as he ran his fingers through my hair.

"I see you haven't cut your hair," he said.

"I sort of just, forgot about it," I said. "But now it's going to get in the way," I said tucking it behind my ears.

"I don't mind it," he whispered. He kissed me on the cheek and I felt my entire face turn red. I looked up at him, and he was blushing too. He was so cute when he blushed.

We both closed our eyes, and felt our lips meet again. Sasuke deepened the kiss and we held each other tighter. Then I shivered as I felt him lick my bottom lip. I let him into my mouth, and our tongues explored each other's mouths once again. Then Sasuke pulled away and started kissing my neck. I moaned softly as I felt him nibble my neck.

For the rest of the evening we talked and got a chance to catch up on everything we missed.

"So Shikamaru is dating Temari? I didn't expect that," said Sasuke. "So, what else did I miss?"

"Well, Naruto got into reading Jiraiyah's books."

"You're kidding?"

"No."

"Wow, I had no idea Naruto was into that stuff."

"He read ten pages of it once when he was fifteen." Sasuke smirked.

"I can't wait to have a rematch against him. It's been too long." I smiled and kissed him again on the lips.

"So does that mean you're staying here?"

"No. Besides, I'm supposed to be the enemy."

"That's too bad, because I wouldn't mind if you moved in with me."

"I can't. I still need to train to get stronger." I sighed.

"Well, good luck with that," I said. Then I turned to him.

"Don't worry," he said. "I'll come back tomorrow."

"Just be careful, do you have any idea how much sleep I loose over you?"

"It can be any less than the time I spend thinking of you everyday," he said touching my face. I pulled him into a deep romantic kiss, and felt him smirk as I licked his bottom lip. He let me into his mouth, and we continued kissing for several more minutes. It was so romantic!

Then we both got up, and said our goodbyes.

"Good night," he said kissing me on the lips. "I'll see you again soon."

"Good bye, Sasuke," I said kissing him back. He gave me a hug and we both left to go our separate ways. I was so happy to finally have Sasuke back in my life.

* * *

More Fluff! So cute! But it won't be long before Itachi comes back looking for Sakura...or maybe it will be longer? You'll have to find out next time!


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter Nine **

**Disclaimer: **Don't make me repeat myself!

**Author's Note:** Yes, the Akatsuki do get out of character a lot in this chapter, but I have reasons for it. I also thought that them using a clothed version of the sexy jutsu would be funny and a good way for them to sneak into Konoha.

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**Back at the Akatsuki Headquarters...**

**Itachi's Point of View:**

I haven't left my room since Sakura left. I have no idea what's wrong with me, but every night I see Sakura in my dreams, and I can't get her off my mind.

"Why do I even care about her? She's an annoying girly girl and all she thinks about is my little brother! And she's six years younger than me!" I sighed and looked out the window. I was falling for Sakura, and there was nothing I could do to stop it.

'Sakura...why did you make me fall in love with you?' I sat down on my bed and looked at the picture of her that I had torn up. I taped it back together yesterday, since I wanted to look at her again. She was so beautiful with her pretty green eyes and her soft pink hair. Then I had a thought: what if she's with Sasuke?

'I have to get her back. I saw her first.' I left my room and went to Leader-sama's office and decided to tell him my plan to get Sakura back.

I knocked on the door of his office and he said I could go in.

"Itachi, I see you finally came out of your room. Tell me, are you in a better mood now?"

"No. I came because I want to get Sakura back."

"That useless girl? Why would you want to get her back? Are you not happy with Tobi?" I stood there as Leader-sama ranted on and on about how he didn't like her.

"Look, you may not like her, but...I do...and Tobi is an idiot." Rei-dono smirked at me.

"So you're interested in her? I see," he said turning around. "Yes, love is unpredictable; even the least likely of people could end up being "the one."

I didn't really have any idea what he was talking about; to me, love is completely useless. At least, I still believe it is.

"I'll have Zetsu track her down for you, how would that sound?"

"I don't think so. He'll just eat her. I'll get her myself," I said leaving his office. I walked down the hall into the dining room, only to be smothered by Mai.

"Itachi! Oh, I've missed you so much!" she said trying to give me a hug. I pushed her off me.

"Leave me alone, I don't want to talk to you right now."

"But...but..." she started having a nervous breakdown and left the room.

"Good ridens," said Sasori.

"That woman was getting on my nerves again..."

"Well...if you don't want her...I'll take her," said Kisame following Mai into the kitchen.

"She's not going to be happy when she sees him trying to feel her up, yeah," said Deidara painting his nails again.

"Kisame really should try praying to Jashin-sama," said Hidan.

"No one cares about your damned Jashin!"

"Infidels! One day you will see!" and Hidan ran off to most likely do another ritual.

"I say we eat Kisame," said Zetsu. "I haven't had shark in ages." I sighed.

"I'm surrounded by idiots," I muttered.

"What was that, un?" said Deidara looking over at me.

"Nothing. I'm leaving now." I was almost out the door when I saw Deidara and Sasori following me.

"Can we come with you Itachi-san?" asked Deidara.

"No."

"Please?"

"I said "no."

"Is this about Sakura?" asked Sasori.

"Yes." They both started grinning. "That makes things even more interesting..." he said as he thought about Sakura.

"For the last time, she's not going to let you see her without her towel again," I said turning the doorknob.

"But don't you want some company? Please! We promise we'll be good, and we'll keep our hands to ourselves this time!" begged Deidara.

"Fine. Just don't do anything you'll regret," I said opening the door. Sasori put on his Hiruko disguise, followed by Deidara who was already putting more clay into his pouch.

"Hey, what about Kisame?" asked Sasori. "Isn't he coming too?"

"No."

"Yeah, he hasn't gotten laid in a long time, so maybe he should stay behind this time, yeah," said Deidara as we began walking down the mountain. For the next few hours, we had to listen to Deidara talk about his so-called "problems"

"Deidara, we're not your therapists, so shut the fuck up," said Sasori from inside his puppet. Deidara winced.

"I'm sorry Sasori-danna, I'll be quiet now."

"About time," I said as we entered the cave. Things were nice and quiet for a few minutes until Deidara opened his mouth again;

"Itachi?"

"What?"

"Are you going to get Sakura back because you're in love with her?" I didn't answer. I didn't feel like talking about my feelings to him.

"I think he does," said Sasori. "Kisame said he saw you two making out like crazy once." Deidara looked over at me and started grinning. I hated it when he grinned.

"So...have you guys done anything else yet?"

"No."

"Sure you haven't..." I glared at him. I wouldn't do anything like that to Sakura. I don't want to take away her purity and innocence from her...yet.

"Deidara leave him alone. If he doesn't want to talk about his love life, then he doesn't have to."

By nightfall we had made it to a small forest. I tapped on a tree three times on the lowest knothole to the left, and the tree opened up a trap door. We went in, and inside was our home away from home.

"We'll be staying here until we can get Sakura back," I said.

"Fine with me," said Sasori getting out of his puppet. "It was starting to get cramped inside there," he said sitting in one of the chairs.

"So are we going to shed any blood while were out tomorrow?" asked Deidara.

"Not if we don't have to."

"Do you even know where she went?" asked Sasori.

"She's probably in Konoha. Sakura most likely turned herself in, and the hokage must have her doing some favors for her to repay her crimes."

"So her village took her back?"

"Perhaps they did. But we won't know until we find her. For all we know, she could be working for another organization."

"Orochimaru?" Sakura had told me that Orochimaru wanted her to work for him. But she never told me why.

"Possibly," I said sitting down. "She may not be a prodigy, but you haven't seen what she's capable of."

"What exactly is she capable of?" he asked with curiosity. "I've never seen her fight, so I'm interested to know what tricks she has up her sleeve."

"Well, for one thing; she's much smarter than I thought she was. And her chakra control is perfect. She's very strong too. She threw Kisame into a boulder and broke it."

"Hm. Maybe she could do that Deidara."

"No! Not me! She already hates me, I don't want her to kill me too, yeah!" said Deidara shuddering at the thought of being defeated by Sakura.

"I'm going to bed," I said opening the door to one of the bedrooms. I took off my cloak and laid down on my bed.

"Sakura..." I fell asleep as soon as her name escaped my lips and hoped that she would soon be in my arms once again.

* * *

**Back in Konoha...**

**Sakura's Point of View:**

The next day I woke up with a huge smile on my face, and it just didn't seem like anything could make it disappear. I took a shower and got dressed and met my team on the bridge by the bathhouse.

"Hey Sakura-sensei!" said Moeki waving to me. I gave them a cheerful hello and we started training again.

"So sensei, why are you so happy today?" asked Udon. "Usually you're yelling at Konohamaru."

I sighed and smiled.

"I have secret admirer and I met him last night," I said smiling. Udon and Konohamaru looked creeped out and Moeki started giggling.

"Oooh! Was he handsome?" I nodded.

"He was gorgeous!"

"Did you kiss him?" she asked me.

"It was the best kiss ever..." Konohamaru and Udon made a bunch of gagging noises.

"Gross!" they said at the same time. "I bet it was someone weird like Rock Lee or something," said Konohamaru. I glared at him.

"It wasn't him, and kissing isn't gross!" I shouted. Konohamaru started shaking and I calmed down.

"I bet it was Sasuke, he's so cute!" said Moeki smiling. The three genin all looked at me like I had done something wrong.

"What? Why are you looking at me like that?" I asked them.

"Sasuke's your secret admirer, isn't he?" I started blushing, and that sort of gave it away that it was Sasuke.

"I knew it!" said Konohamaru. "That's why she's so happy today!"

"All right, my secrets out...but we can talk about this later. You three need to finish training," I said pointing to the equipment. They ran off and continued with their training. While I watched them, I thought I could sense someone in the bushes behind me. I turned around and peeked behind on of the bushes, but didn't find anything.

"I thought someone was following me, but then again, maybe not." I left and went over to help my students train the rest of the day.

Itachi's Point of View:

The three of us had just finished eating breakfast and sat around for a few minutes, thinking of a plan to kidnap Sakura.

"Well, Sasori could use one of his puppets and steal her or something, yeah," said Deidara.

"Are you really that dense? Everyone in the hidden leaf village knows who we are, and that plan is useless," said Sasori.

"Itachi, do you have any ideas, un?" asked Deidara.

"Yes, I do. You may not know this, but in Konoha there's a bakery. And it's run by Sakura's family. All we have to do is sneak into the village, take her parents hostage and leave a ransom note."

"What would this ransom be?" asked Sasori.

"Sakura would have to trade herself in to save her parents," I said darkly.

"Itachi, you are a genius!" said Deidara. "But can we buy some pastries there too? I love pastries, yeah!"

"No. We need to focus on the mission. But before we go into the village, we need to do it so they won't suspect anything."

"We could go in disguises," said Deidara. "Sasori, do you have any extra puppets?"  
"I am not disgracing myself by wearing one of those things," I said pointing at Sasori's puppet.

"I suggest we use a transformation jutsu to sneak into the village," said Sasori. "I also hear that the hidden leaf village is having an Easter parade tomorrow, so it will be easy for us to sneak in undetected." I found his idea to be very intriguing.

"I just have one question," said Deidara. "What are we going to turn into? Because I am not turning into an Easter bunny: The little brats would be all over me."

"We could turn into women," said Sasori.

"I am not disgracing myself by using that 'sexy jutsu' that Naruto came up with," I said standing up.

"Actually, I like Sasori-danna's idea. Besides, I've always wondered what it would be like to be a woman..." said Deidara smirking. I glared at the both of them; their idea was ridiculous, but if it could get us in, then I would be rather pleased.

"If it can get us in, then I'll do it," I said. Deidara grinned and quickly transformed into a girl with pigtails wearing a pink dress. Sasori then transformed into a girl wearing a blue dress and they both stared at me.

"Well, aren't you going to transform?" asked Deidara in his new girly voice.

"Fine, I'll do the transformation. But I still believe that this is ridiculous, and a waste of my precious time."

"Just do it already," said Sasori growing impatient. "You know I don't like to be kept waiting." I transformed into a girl wearing a black dress.

"There, happy?" I said scowling.

"All right, let's get going," said Deidara. "If we hurry now, we could make it to the village by tomorrow morning." The three of us left our secret hideout, disguised as girls and set off for Konoha.

* * *

**Sakura's Point of View:**

After we finished training, I stopped by at my parent's bakery to help them set up the shop for the Easter festival tomorrow. When I went inside the shop, there were tons of people waiting in line to buy chocolates, cakes, cookies, and everything else my parents made. My friend Riku was frosting a couple of cakes when he saw me.

"Sakura! Thank goodness you're here. We need your help," he said motioning for me to come behind the counter. I went in and he led me to the kitchens in back. My parents were hard at work making many different types of candies for all of their costumers.

"Hi mom and dad," I said smiling.

"Hi honey, nice of you to stop by. Can you help Meiko box up all the candies and truffles?"

"No problem," I said walking over to one of the counters. I rolled up my sleeves and put on some gloves and began to put all of the candies into boxes. For the next three hours all me and the rest of my family did was talk while meeting all of our costumer's needs.

Hiashi Hyuga came in that day and ordered twelve dozen boxes of chocolates, while Asuma bought a box of ribbon candy for Kurenai. Gai and Lee called ahead and ordered a cake for their Easter party, and Hinata bought a dozen blueberry muffins for Naruto.

Kiba and Hana stopped by at the end of the day to buy some homemade dog treats for all of the dogs in the Inuzuka clan, and finally Ino's family bought several batches of cupcakes.

"Thank you, come again," said Riku as he put up the closed sign. We had been cleaned out today, and we made so much money. My cousin Amaya was counting the money when I saw a kitten tapping on the window. I went outside and let the kitten into the store.

"Sakura, what the heck is that flea ball?" I looked down at the cat, it had to have been a few months old, and it was a dirty brown color with blue eyes.

"Aw, it's a kitten," I said picking up the cat. It started purring when I held it in my arms.

"Well, just keep that thing out of the kitchen, you know how Riku gets when animals are around."

"It's okay, I'm taking it home with me anyways."

"What are you going name it?" she asked.

"Well, since it's a girl, I'll name it Sora."

"Sora. I like that." Sora started purring again and I left the bakery to head back to my apartment. I just had to make sure my landlady wouldn't find out. She hates animals.

That evening I gave Sora a bath, and the whole time she tried to scratch me with her claws. Once I finished washing her, her coat was now a pretty orange color with stripes.

"Wow, you must have been really dirty before," I said picking her up. I made a small bed for her out of some older blankets and put it at the foot of my bed. She rolled around in the blankets and fell asleep. I changed into my nightgown and also went to bed.

The next day I woke up early to go see my parents at the bakery again. They would be in back doing some cleaning and I figured I would stop by and bring them some Easter eggs I made last night. But when I got inside, the tables and chairs were all over the place, the counter was a mess, and some of the pastries were missing.

"What happened in here?" I asked myself. I went behind the counter, and freaked out when I saw a note taped to the cash register.

_If you ever want to see your parents again, you will go to the top of the mountain and turn yourself over to us. If you refuse, we will kill your parents. _

**Another cliffhanger? I'm so bad! I'm terrible! (Laughs) Reviews are appreciated and I hope you enjoyed the story!**


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter Ten**

**Author's Note: **I wrote this chapter around Easter last year and for some odd reason, pastries somehow came up. It must be those creamed horns or something. Anyways, enjoy. 

And if Itachi starts to become OOC, I'm sorry. He kind of has to be a little OOC for this story. 

* * *

"Itachi must have my parents," I said. "That bastard." I knew it was him from the moment I saw the note. Only Itachi Uchiha would do something this crazy and rash! But why? Then I remembered why: 

"He still has feelings for me...and he wants me back..." I said softly. I think he was crazy for doing this. But if I didn't go turn myself in, then my parents were as good as dead. 

"I need a back up plan," I said. 

I found Naruto at Irichiraku's ramen bar with Kakashi and Iruka. 

"Hey Sakura, how are you today?" said Naruto waving to me. I just looked at him with fear.

"What's wrong?" asked Kakashi. 

"My parents were kidnapped." 

"By who?" asked Iruka.

"Itachi." Their eyes widened and they quickly got up.

"Now why would he do something like that?" asked Kakashi. "What is he after this time?"

"He better not be after me again, there's no way I'm ever going back to that crazy place!" said Naruto. 

"He doesn't want Naruto. He wants me." 

"What? Why would Itachi want you?" asked Iruka. Then he remembered why.

"He wants you back in the Akatsuki, doesn't he?" 

"That's one reason." 

"What's the other one?" asked Naruto. 

"Well...it's a little...embarrassing..."

"Why is that?" asked Kakashi. I started blushing. 

"Itachi...well...he sort of..."

"Sort of what?' asked Naruto.

"Quit interrupting me!" I shouted. I took a deep breath and finished my sentence. "Itachi...has feelings for me." 

"WHAT? ARE YOU SERIOUS?" shouted Naruto. 

"That doesn't sound like Itachi at all," said Kakashi. 

"Please tell me you don't like him too," said Naruto.

"Well, I used to, but he makes me nervous, especially when he tried to get me to kiss him before I left." 

"So he likes you, but you don't like him," said Naruto. "But you like Sasuke?" I nodded. 

"Look, I didn't come here to talk about my love life, I need some help to save my parents without turning myself in, or getting them killed." 

"I'll call in some black ops agents as back up," said Iruka. "And I'll send Gai, Kurenai, and Asuma to help you." 

"Actually, I think all you'll need is Naruto," said Kakashi. "He's much stronger and he's got a lot of tricks up his sleeve from what Jiraiyah has told me." 

"All right, but I'll have Asuma and the others as a back up in case there's more Akatsuki members," said Iruka. 

"Thank you," I said to Kakashi and Iruka. "Come on Naruto, let's go." 

"But I haven't finished my ramen-" I grabbed him by the arm.

"Forget the ramen, let's go already!" I said making him follow me. 

* * *

**Itachi's Point of View: **

Our plan had definitely worked. We were able to get into Konoha without being detected, break into the bakery, and kidnap Sakura's parents without anyone seeing the three of us. Now all we had to do was wait for Sakura to show up. I knew that she wouldn't be alone, but either way we would still get her back and maybe get rid of a few extra shinobi as well. 

"I'm sick of waiting for her," said Sasori from inside his puppet Hiruko. "How the hell do you even know she's coming?" 

"I know for a fact that Sakura will show up because she cares about her parents," I said plainly. Deidara was sitting down tapping his feet while eating one of the pastries he stole from the bakery. 

"Well, at least we got some pastries, yeah. Would you like one Itachi-chan?" he asked me.

"No." 

"Okay then, more for me, yeah." 

"Some one's coming," said Sasori. Deidara put his pastries back under his cloak and made himself look as intimidating as possible. However it's pretty hard to be scary if you have blonde hair like he does. 

Two shadowy figures appeared in front of us. Out of the shadows came Sakura and Naruto. 

"Well, I see you decided to show up," I said approaching Sakura. "Tell me, did you decide to give us Naruto as well?" 

"Shut up you dirty scumbag," she said darkly. "Just give me back my parents." I started chuckling at her. 

"Didn't you forget the other half of the deal? You have to turn yourself into us. Only then will we set your parents free." She sighed. 

"You just don't quit, do you?" I said nothing. Then Deidara took Sakura's parents over to us and let them go. 

"Well, it looks like your little girl is here to take your place, yeah. You're lucky we didn't kill you." They quickly ran over to Sakura and gave her a hug and the three of them talked for a few seconds. 

"You can't go back to that horrible place," said her mother. 

"But if I don't then Itachi will kill you both," she said with tears in her eyes. Then Naruto, who had been standing still the whole time, was now missing. 

"Hey, what happened to that blond kid?" asked Sasori.

"What? I'm right here, yeah," said Deidara. 

"Not you, I'm talking about the kyuubi." 

"Oh...he was right there and-" but before he could finish his sentence, Naruto kicked him in the back of the head. 

"Surprised to see me?" Then he turned to Sakura. "Sakura, take your parents and get out of here, I'll hold them off!" 

"But you're going to get yourself killed!" she said. 

"Don't worry about it. I'll be fine. If I can beat Gaara, then these three will be no problem at all." But before she was about to leave, my clone stopped them. 

"I don't think so. You're not going anywhere," I said glaring at Sakura. She looked up at me with anger and punched me in the face. But it didn't really bother me until I felt one of my teeth fall out of my mouth. I spat it out on the ground and glared at her.

"I'm still not letting you leave, but your parents are free to go," I said looking at them. 

"Just go, I'll be fine," she said to her parents. They ran away as fast as they could and now it was just us. Naruto was now fighting against Deidara and his exploding clay birds, while Sasori watched. 

Then Sakura threw a kunai at me and punched the ground. The once flat ground suddenly became rugged and I jumped out of the way before she punched the ground. 

"So, you threw a kunai at me to distract me from what you were really planning. But a technique like that won't work on me." Then I pinned her to one of the boulders sticking out of the ground and closed my eyes. 

* * *

**Sakura's Point of View:**

"You're going to use the Mangekyou sharingan, aren't you?" I said closing my eyes. He chuckled for a second and then I felt his soft lips press against mine. That bastard! I tried to push him off me, but he wouldn't get off! 

"Get off me!" I said trying to get free.

"No, you can't escape me," he whispered. He kissed roughly on the lips and I gave up on trying to get free. 

"Sakura!" Naruto saw what Itachi was doing and ran over to save me, but Sasori had his puppet use his scorpion tail to stop Naruto from reaching us.

"Oh no you don't, we're not done with you yet, yeah," said Deidara grabbing him by the collar of his vest. Itachi pulled away from me to see what was happening and then looked back at me. 

"If you had came here alone, you wouldn't be in this situation right now." Then to my horror, he used the Mangekyou sharingan without warning. I was now in his crazy nightmare world and I was on the ground and he wouldn't stop stabbing me.

"Stop it! I can't take this!" I screamed. Itachi wouldn't listen. For the next 72 hours I had to be stabbed repeatedly by his katana. Then I opened my eyes and I was on the ground curled up in a ball. 

"Only a second has passed?"

"Simple, I can control it," he said. "And I'm surprised you still have your spirit intact." Then out of the blue I began to cry. I looked up at him with my sad eyes. 

"Why? Why me?" I asked. "Why did you have to do that to me?" Itachi knelt down in front of me and sighed. 

"You irritate me," he said. Then he pinned me to the ground and took out a kunai. 

"No, you can't do this!" I shouted at him. 

"Let her go now!" Sasuke appeared out of nowhere on top of a cliff and jumped down. 

"Sasuke!" I pushed Itachi off me and ran over to him. "I'm so glad you're here!" I asked him. 

"Exactly what are you doing with that creep?" he asked me. 

"He tried to kidnap me," I said as we both got up. Sasuke gave me a hug and then turned to Itachi.

"You are really pissing me off right now," he said taking out his sword. 

"You're not going to fight him, are you?" I asked him.

"I am, but not to avenge the clan. This fight is for you." 

"Foolish little brother. You still haven't obtained it?" Sasuke glared at his older brother.

"Shut up! I don't want to hear it! I'm not here to kill you. We have another matter we need to settle." 

"Sakura?" he asked. "I already know that it's about her. I saw her first, and you can't have her."

"Since when do I belong to you?" I shouted. Itachi walked over and grabbed me by the arm. 

"Since I laid eyes on you. I knew from that moment that I would make you mine," he said pulling me close to him. 

"Let go of her now!" said Sasuke punching him in the face. Another tooth of Itachi's fell out. He spat it on the ground and threw me aside and punched Sasuke in the face. I couldn't stand seeing them fight. 

"Please, stop fighting! Do you really want to spend all your energy fighting over me?" I said.

"Would you rather have us fight over the clan instead?" said Itachi sarcastically. I gave him a dark glare. 

"Let go of Sasuke now," I said. 

"And exactly what makes you think I'll do that?" I walked up to him and pulled him close to me. I kissed him roughly on the lips and pushed him away. 

"That's why," I said. Sasuke looked at me with surprise. Then I heard a loud bang, and saw Naruto running back over to us. 

"Sakura! We have to get out now!" he said. 

"Why?"

"Deidara set off a bomb and it's going to kill us all if we don't get out of here now!" he said grabbing my hand. We started running and Sasuke came with us.

"I'm going with you," said Sasuke.

"What? After all that you did? You gotta be joking," said Naruto as we ran. 

"Fine, just get out of the village after, we don't want you here," said Naruto. Sasuke nodded and we managed to get far enough away from the bomb. It exploded as soon as we were a couple hundred feet away, but then a rockslide blocked the rest of the path leading to the bottom of the mountain. 

"What do we do now?" I asked Naruto.

"I got it," said Naruto. He bit his thumb and made several hand signs. 

"Summoning jutsu!" A large toad appeared out of nowhere and we jumped on its back.

"Where to boss?" the toad asked.

"Outside the village," said Naruto. The toad quickly jumped from rooftop to rooftop until we were well outside of Konoha. We jumped off its back and Naruto thanked the toad.

"You're welcome boss," he said vanishing. 

"Well, that was definitely entertaining," said Sasuke. "But I have to go now," he said walking away. I ran after him. 

"Sasuke, wait. I wanted to thank you for showing up like you did. It was...It was very sweet of you to do that." He smiled at me and pulled me close to him. Then he leaned in and softly kissed me on the lips. He deepened the kiss for a minute and pulled away.

"You're welcome," he whispered. He looked over at Naruto whose face was now turning red and left. Naruto and I walked back into the village and he wouldn't talk to me the whole time.

"What's your problem?" I asked him.

"You're in love with both of those scumbags," he said. "And it was pretty stupid of you to trust Sasuke like that."

"You don't trust him either?" I asked.

"Sakura, he's still working for Orochimaru!" I clenched my fists in anger. "He's just using you because he wants to get something for Orochimaru!" 

"No! It's not true! He has changed, and he...he cares about me! You're just jealous because I don't feel that way about you!" 

"No, its just that...okay, I'm jealous." 

"But why Naruto? Why are you still jealous of Sasuke?"

"Because he always gets what he wants, and he hardly even has to do anything for it." 

"You're wrong. He's been working his ass off to get stronger than Itachi," I said trying to defend Sasuke. Naruto sighed. 

"I just have a bad feeling about Sasuke. I don't want you to get hurt. It's bad enough you already have Itachi after you all the time." 

"I know. He won't leave me alone, and he keeps on insisting that I'm his..." 

"His what? His girlfriend?" 

"I hope not. I thought I liked him before, but I'm never going to forgive him for kidnapping my parents and using the Mangekyou sharingan on me."

"He used it on you? That gives me another reason to hate him!" 

Then he stopped in the middle of the street. 

"Do you want to get some ramen?" he asked me. And once again, Naruto's randomness never ceases to amaze me. 

"Alright, let's go get some ramen." We were about to turn around when we saw a large clay bird flying over the village. It swooped down and Deidara had the bird grab me by it's talons. We quickly flew up to the air and I screamed. I didn't tell anyone this, but I was terrifed of extreme heights.

"Sakura!"

"Naruto!"

"Don't worry, I'll go get some help and we'll get you back!" He said trying to talk to me. But then the village quickly turned into a small dot and we were now up in the sky. 

We landed in somewhere deep in the woods and Deidara tied me up. Itachi and Sasori appeared a minute later and looked down on me. I hated all of them so much for doing what they just did. And that stupid puppet that Sasori wore creeped me out! 

"I hate you!" I shouted at Itachi. Itachi knelt down in front of me and looked into my eyes.

"Now, now, be nice," he said softly. I spat in his face, and he wiped it off and glared at me. 

"I really wish you'd stop trying to fight me like that." 

"What do you want me to do? Let you get away with everything? Because I'm not going to let you!" I said sharply. Itachi sighed.

"Alright, I'm sorry," he said. "I never should have hit you or tortured you like I have," he said. Then he looked at Deidara and Sasori. "Could you two leave for a minute?" he asked. They nodded and left us alone together. 

"Sakura, I know you're mad, and I know you...like my brother...but how do you know he even _loves_ you?" Argh! He's as bad as Naruto! 

"You're jealous too, aren't you? You and Naruto are always on my case telling me who I should be with and who I shouldn't!" 

" I just don't trust anyone who works for Orochimaru, and then all of a sudden shows up after several years and says he's in love with you."

"What are you getting at?" I asked.

"Sasuke is using you. If there's one thing I know about Sasuke, it's that when he wants something...he won't stop until he gets it," he said leaning in closer to me. "Just like I won't stop until you're mine." Itachi was now so close that his forehead was touching mine, and I was now lying on the ground. 

"How do I know you're not trying to use me either?" I asked him. "That's what you did with Mai." 

"I don't want to talk about her right now. You're not like her; you're better than that," he said. "I'm not using you. If I was, then I would've already had my way with you." I blushed when he said those words. 

"So you're not using me...for...that?" 

"I wouldn't do that to you," he whispered. I wasn't sure if I should believe him, but what if he was right about Sasuke? What if he really is using me so he could bring me to Orochimaru? I hadn't forgotten that Orochimaru is still interested in having me be one of his henchmen. Then I looked into Itachi's eyes. He had deactivated his sharingan, and I knew that he wasn't lying. 

"I believe you," I whispered. Then to my surprise, Itachi gave me a slight smile. Then he gently kissed me on the lips. I felt the kiss deepen and his tongue found it's way back into my mouth again. After a few minutes Itachi pulled away and kissed me on the cheek. 

"I knew you would believe me," he said. He got off me and helped me to my feet. Then he held me tight in his arms and whispered in my ear,

"I think I'm falling in love with you, and by the way you're blushing...you feel the same way." 

"I am," I said softly. "I'm head over heels for you." 

* * *

**So romantic of Itachi to do that! Either that he's just really obsessed and its unhealthy. The poor guy really took a beating, but don't worry Itachi lost his molars and it will not affect his hotness. Reviews are appreciated.**


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter Eleven**

**Author's note: **If updates keep getting even slower than they are now, its because I have lots of homework. With that said, enjoy the story.

**

* * *

** A few minutes later Deidara and Sasori came back and the four of us kept walking back to the headquarters, despite that fact that I didn't want to go back there.

While we were walking through the thick pine forest, I thought I saw something move, and by the looks of it, so did everyone else.

"What was that, hm?" asked Deidara. Sasori glared up at him.

"Quiet, it'll hear us," he said from inside that ugly puppet of his. Itachi stood there silently, and then he aimed his kunai at me.

"What are you-" The kunai went flying and hit something next to me.

"Well, I suppose you can come out now that your cover is blown," said Itachi. The lump behind the bushes got up, and to my horror, became four sound ninja.

"What do you freaks want now, hm?" asked Deidara taking out a few kunai from under his cloak.

"Hmph. For your information; this doesn't concern you," said the first one. "We're here for the girl."

"So, Orochimaru still wants me to become his henchmen," I said smirking at them. "Well, I have to admit it was nice of him to offer, but I'm still not interested."

I slammed my fists into the ground and the entire area crumbled under their feet. They all jumped away in time, and one of them had set off a wire trap to try and catch me. I managed to get away.

"You'll have to do better than that if you want to catch me!" I shouted from below.

The third sound ninja jumped down and attacked me, but since he was so large his size gave him a disadvantage over me, since I was a lot faster. The others attacked Itachi, but within seconds he was caught in one of his own webs.

"Next time, choose your battles more wisely," said Itachi smirking up at him.

"Get me out of here now you no good dirty-"

"Shut up! I'll take care of him," said the fourth. He summoned several large demons who tried to capture me, but Deidara stopped them with one of his clay bombs, and Sasori used his scorpion tail to trap him.

"You're going to pay for that!" He and the others got loose and surrounded us. They were about to attack us when someone appeared out of the clearing and stepped between us.

"Sasuke!" Sasuke appeared out of nowhere and glared at his fellow henchmen with his sharingan, and they canceled their attacks.

"I told you not to harm her," said Sasuke. "Lord Orochimaru wants her alive." They apologized to him quickly and then Sasuke turned around.

"Sakura, I'm sorry," he said with regret. "But you have to come with me now."

"So you've using me the whole time?" I shouted. Sasuke clenched his fists.

"I did it because... I want power. Orochimaru said he would help me become stronger if I captured you..."

"Sasuke...I can't believe you would do something horrible like this...and to think...I believed everything you told me!" I felt a tear fall from my eye, but I quickly wiped it away. Itachi, Sasori and Deidara watched with amusement as we continued to argue.

"Sakura...I had another reason..."

"What? Did you think you were going to get lucky too?" I said with anger in my voice.

"No...I did it because...I felt guilty for leaving you. After a few years of being gone, I began to feel guilty for betraying you and Naruto like I did. I couldn't get you out of my head. You had been in front of me all those years, and all I ever did was push you away..."

"What's your point?" I said getting impatient. Sasuke walked closer to me and I started to get nervous. He put his hand on my shoulder and looked into my eyes.

"Sakura, I realized that after all these years...that I..." Sasuke looked a bit nervous, but he hid it before Itachi noticed.

"Sakura, I love you." I felt several warm tears escape from my eyes, and I hugged him tightly.

"Sasuke! I've been waiting so long for you to say those words!" I said as he hugged me back.

"Well, despite how entertaining watching you two fight was, your not the only one she's in love with," said Itachi. We let go of each other and Sasuke glared at him with nothing but pure hatred in his eyes for his older brother.

"That's right. She's in love with me as well." Sasuke looked over at me and I turned away from him.

The guilt was settling in. He made me look at him, and wouldn't let me turn away from him.

"Tell me this isn't true! Please tell me that you're not in love with that creep!" he shouted.

"I wish I could...but its true. I love you, but I love Itachi just as much," I said with sadness in my eyes.

Sasuke pushed me away and took out his sword. Itachi did the same and they slowly began to approach each other.

"I promise this time that I won't go easy on you little brother," said Itachi.

"Likewise," said Sasuke. Both Uchihas lifted up their swords high above their heads and they clashed loudly.

"Only one of us is walking away alive this time," said Sasuke. "And I'll make sure that its me!"

"Foolish little brother...you think that just because you joined a snake sannin that he will make you stronger? Orochimaru doesn't keep his promises."

"My, my, how insulting," said a voice. Orochimaru and Kabuto came out the shadows and began walking towards the two Uchiha brothers.

"Well, I see that you found Sakura; good work. But I didn't expect you to find so many Akatsuki members in one place as well," he said licking his lips with his disgusting snake tongue.

Itachi and Sasuke stopped fighting and Sasuke went over and stood by Orochimaru.

"Sakura, you don't have to go with that monster," said Itachi. "Come with me instead. Besides, did you really believe all of Sasuke's lies? He's just using you."

"You're wrong about him," I said walking away from him.

"Don't you dare walk away from me like that," he said standing in front of me.

"I can, and I will. It is true that I do have feelings for you, but I can't forgive you for hitting me!"

"Sakura-"

"And another thing, you're way to possessive." For once, Itachi couldn't think of a comeback.

"Fine, if you want to go with Sasuke...go ahead. But just remember this; just because he said he loves you doesn't mean that he isn't capable of betraying you again."

He pulled me close to him and whispered in my ear,

"I have one last request before you go," he said. I looked up at him, ready to listen to what he had to say.

"Promise me that you'll get rid of Orochimaru and free Sasuke from the curse mark," he said in a serious tone. I nodded and to my surprise he kissed me gently on the lips. Itachi let me go and I walked away.

"You've made the right decision," said Orochimaru. Then he looked at his followers."It is time that we depart," then he turned to Itachi, Deidara and Sasori.

"You were lucky this time, but next time we meet, I will see to it that you are each killed by me personally."

His henchmen tied my arms so they were behind my back and we vanished leaving Itachi, Deidara and Sasori no choice except to go back to headquarters empty handed.

I followed Orochimaru and his henchmen for several hours until we disappeared into a deep tunnel underground. When we came back up, we were inside a huge mansion.

"Welcome to your new home," said Orochimaru turning around to face me. I glared at him.

"I'll be out of here before you know it. If I can escape the Akatsuki headquarters, then getting out of this dump won't be much of a challenge."

"You insolent girl! How dare you defy me?"

"Shut up old man! I'm not going to let you control me like a puppet like the rest of these freaks!" I shouted.

Orochimaru glared at me and had his henchmen tie me up to a chair.

"Now that that's out of the way, now we can perform the ritual." Sasuke glared at him.

"What are you going to do to her?" Orochimaru smiled maliciously and started to laugh horrifically.

"Ignorant boy, I'm not going to harm her. No." Then he turned to me. "She's going to be my bride!"

I screamed at the sound of those very words and gave Orochimaru a death glare as he walked closer.

"You are going to be my bride and you have no say in the matter what so ever." He grabbed my left hand that was sticking out of the bottom of the ropes that tied me up and took out a ring.

"You will accept this ring, and then we will begin the ceremony!" he said out loud to everyone in the room.

"I'm not marrying an old ugly snake like you!" I said. I spat in his face and kicked him with both of my legs.

"I told you morons to tie up her legs!" he shouted at his henchmen.

"Sorry, Orochimaru-sama," said Kabuto. He took out a thick rope and tied my legs to the chair and managed to get them tied after I kept kicking him so many times.

As soon as he finished tying me, Orochimaru stood right in front of me and looked down at me.

Why are you doing this?" I asked.

"Glad you asked Sakura. You see, not only do I need a new vessel for my immortality jutsu, but I also need...a partner, if you will. I need someone to bear a child for me incase the immortality jutsu doesn't work, and you my dear, are a fine choice."

"You're sick! You are fucking sick thinking I'll marry you and have your children!"

"It's not sick, my dear. It's ingenious!" Then he turned to Kabuto and Sasuke.

"Take Sakura down to the dungeons," he said. They untied me from the chair and tied my arms behind my back and took me downstairs to the dungeons.

Kabuto opened up the door to a room and chained my arms to the wall.

"You will stay here until Orochimaru-sama says otherwise," he said. "Let's go Sasuke." Sasuke looked at me with regret and followed Kabuto out of the room.

'Well, now what? Orochimaru wants to marry me and I have no way of escaping from this place.'

Then I closed my eyes and the first thing that came to my mind was Sasuke. But then he quickly left my mind and Itachi took over completely:

_"You talk too much," he whispered. 'What was he doing? I thought he hated me? But what if...no! He doesn't like me! _

_But he did tell me I had nice eyes...but then again, everyone says I have nice eyes.' I began to grow nervous as Itachi's face got closer to mine until we were just a few inches apart. I was about to speak, but he wouldn't let me._

_"Don't speak," he said seductively. I knew what he was going to do, so I closed my eyes. Then I felt his lips gently meet with mine. As soon as he pulled away, I opened my eyes. He got off me and left the room. I was still lying there on the floor, tracing around my lips where he kissed me._

I still remembered my first kiss with Itachi so clearly in my mind, almost too clear.

"Why Itachi? Why do you make me feel this way?" I opened my eyes and looked at the shackles that held me to the wall. I knew that I had to get out of here, and since I made that promise to Itachi:

_"I have one last request before you go," he said. I looked up at him, ready to listen to what he had to say._

_"Promise me that you'll get rid of Orochimaru and free Sasuke from the curse mark," he said in a serious tone._

_I nodded and to my surprise he kissed me gently on the lips. _

Can Sakura escape the evil hell hole that is Orochimaru's hideout? Will Itachii rescue her, or does Sasuke have some sort of crazy plan? Find out next time!

* * *


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter Twelve**

* * *

**Insert Dislcaimer here (I don't like repeating myself)**

'I know what I must do,' I thought to myself. I concentrated all of my chakra into my arms and began to pull against the chains. They ripped from the wall easily, and I did the same thing to my feet.

I was now standing on the floor in front of the wall where I was once tied and stretched my arms and legs.

"Now to get out of here before that disgusting snake comes back," I whispered. I began pulling at the bars to try to escape, but the bars were too strong, even for me; Sakura, who was trained by the hokage herself for three years!

"I can't quit now, I'm going to get out," I said pulling on the bars. Then to my horror, the door opened.

"Going somewhere?" asked a voice. I said nothing I turned around and gasped when I saw Sasuke lingering in the doorway playing with a shuriken.

"Sasuke, I-I-I...uh..." God, I felt like an idiot in front of him! He closed the door behind him and began to slowly walk towards me with a look of lust in his eyes.

After that moment, I completely forgot about the other Uchiha and began to worry why Sasuke was in here in the middle of the night.

"Sasuke, what are you-" before I could finish what I had to say, Sasuke pushed me against the wall and pressed his lips against mine.

He pulled away a second later and we looked into each other's eyes.

"I've lost you once, and I'm not going to loose you again," he whispered. I was speechless at those words, but I could tell by looking into his eyes that he was serious.

We kissed again, only this time it was much longer and loving than before.

I moaned softly as he slipped his tongue inside my mouth and I pulled him closer to me, or as I close as I could.

_I didn't want him to stop._

Sasuke pulled away again and I felt his hands creeping up my shirt and under my bra.

"Don't..." I whispered. "Its not right," I said softly.

"Is it? But how can something so wrong feel so right?" he asked me. He had me there, and he was right; it felt so right.

Then Sasuke took off his shirt and whispered in my ear,

"I want you." He took off my shirt and pulled down my bra.

Everything that had happened so far had been amazing, and I could care less about the footsteps coming from down the hall.

'Wait..._footsteps_?'

"Oh god," I whispered.

"What's wrong?" asked Sasuke.

"Someone's coming," I said fearfully. We were about to put our clothes back on, but it was too late; we had been found out.

"Well, what do we have here?" said Kabuto standing in the doorway smirking at us.

"Kabuto, get the hell out of here," said Sasuke glaring at him.

"And pass up the opportunity to blackmail you? I don't think so. I'm going to tell Orochimaru-sama about you two, and then I'll be the one to be his successor instead of you!"

Sasuke smirked at him and started laughing.

"Is that all? Haven't you noticed that I'm not interested in what the old man has planned for me. I have other plans," he said.

"Do those plans involve you sleeping with Sakura as well?"

"Shut up!" I said harshly to Kabuto. "Just get out of here before we decide to kill you," I said holding up a kunai I found on the floor. Kabuto scowled and left the room.

"I'll deal with you two later." As soon as he was gone, we put our shirts back as soon as Orochimaru walked into the room. Kabuto told him and now Orochimaru was most likely going to kill us both for betraying him like we did.

"You just couldn't keep away from her, could you, Sasuke?"

Both of us glared at the snake sannin.

"What do you want now?" asked Sasuke taking out his sword. I took out a few kunai and hid them behind my back, but still ready to attack.

"I never got to give Sakura her ring," said Orochimaru smiling evilly. "We can't waste any more time here."

"Find someone from your own species old man!" I said throwing my kunai at him. He caught them and simply tossed them aside.

"So, you want to play games? _I like games_." He threw my kunai back and I quickly dodged them. Then Orochimaru attacked Sasuke, but it backfired, and now he was pinned to the wall, with a kunai at his neck.

"Sasuke, you aren't _really_ going to kill me, are you?" he asked him. "Because you'll have to do much better than that!"

Orochimaru pushed Sasuke off him and made several hand signs and transformed into his real form. It was a giant white snake made out of little snakes, and his face was creepier than usual. He was no longer human; he was a demon!

"You were pretty brave forcing me to take on my true form, but it ends right now!" he said trying to kill Sasuke.

"It ends...for you..." said Sasuke. He gathered his chakra into a spark of blue lighting; the chidori, his specialty. He ran straight at Orochimaru and punched him in the face. His punch was so strong that all of the snakes scattered and disappeared.

"NOOOOOO!! I was supposed to live forever!"

"Its lights out for you!" he said. Orochimaru fell onto the ground. He was dead. His body quickly turned into dust and blew away.

"He was so obsessed with his experiments that he even experimented on his own body," said Sasuke looking down at the pile of dust that was once the legendary snake sannin.

"So...he's gone?" I asked. Sasuke nodded. I ran up to him and gave him a hug. I was so happy that Orochimaru was gone.

Sasuke started clutching the back of his neck where the curse mark was and fell onto his knees. The curse mark started emitting a purple smoke and slowly disappeared. The curse mark was finally gone; Sasuke was also free.

"It's...it's gone, he said smiling. "It's finally gone." I helped him up and we left the dungeons.

Just when we were about to leave Orochimaru's hideout for good, Kabuto and Orochimaru's henchmen were standing in our way.

"You're not going anywhere," said Kabuto. "I told you I would deal with you two, and now I will." I stepped forward.

"Do you really want to deal with the shinobi who killed your leader?" I asked Kabuto. Kabuto's eyes displayed a bit of fear in them.

"Oro-orochimaru-sama...is dead?"

"And you're next," I said smirking.

I punched Kabuto in the face and he hit the wall so hard that the wall crumbled over him. The rest of Orochimaru's followers looked at us fearfully.

Who else wants to fight me? I can take you on," I said looking at the four petrified sound shinobi. They backed away from us and ran away quickly.

"That's what I thought," I said as they ran out into the woods. Kabuto managed to get out from under the pieces of marble that fell on him and took out a few shuriken and threw them at me. I caught them and threw them back at him, but I missed.

"I'm not going to die today," said Kabuto. "Once I leave and kill you I will start my own organization and become the strongest shinobi in the world! I will be a living legend, and there's nothing either of you can do to stop me!" he shouted.

"Wanna bet?" said Sasuke. He stabbed Kabuto in the heart with his sword, and Kabuto fell to the ground and passed out.

"So, now what?" asked Sasuke.

"Can you bring me home?" I asked him. "We need to tell the hokage about this."

He nodded and we finally left what was once Otogakure and went back to Konoha. We walked through the woods and Sasuke pulled me close to him.

"Can you do me a favor?" he asked me.

"Anything."

"Let's not tell anyone about what we did?"

"Now why would I do that?" I said teasing him. We may not have had sex, but we had gotten much closer than ever before.

"I won't tell either," said Sasuke kissing me again. After our kiss we got up and continued walking through the woods holding hands.

But I couldn't help but get the feeling that someone was following us.

* * *

**??'s Point of View:**

I had been watching them since they left and killed Orochimaru and I couldn't wait to deliver the news to a certain someone. I disappeared back underground and continued on my way...

* * *

**Sakura's Point of View:**

"Did you hear that just now?" I asked Sasuke.

"No, it was probably just a rabbit or something," he said as we continued walking.

About two hours later we stopped at a small lagoon that had a beautiful waterfall coming down from the mountains.

We sat down in front of the water together under the warm sun. The rays of the sun reflected off the water, making it look like a million diamonds fell onto a light blue blanket.

Then Sasuke took off his sandals and his shirt and jumped into the water still wearing his pants.

"Would you like to join me?" he asked looking up at me. The water was cold and I didn't want to get my clothes wet, but I went in anyway in my shorts and my tank top.

We swam around for a few minutes, and then Sasuke suddenly disappered. I looked around trying to find him, but I couldn't see him anywhere.

"Sasuke? Where did you go?" Then I felt someone pull me under the water, and felt their lips press against mine.

Then I came up for air and opened my eyes, Sasuke was smirking at me.

"Don't scare me like that," I said splashing him. He splashed me back.

"Aw come on, you have to admit that was fun," he said.

"Well now that you think about it, it was pretty fun, " I said smiling at him.

He pulled me closer to him and wrapped his arms around my waist and kissed me passionately on the lips. I closed my eyes and enjoyed the moment and let him slip his tongue in my mouth. He slowly pulled away and we looked into each other's eyes for a moment.

"I love you," I said softly.

"I love you too," said Sasuke as he kissed me on the cheek.

Everything was completely silent for a moment.

"I'll race you back to the shore!" I said swimming back to dry land.

Sasuke followed me back and we kept pushing each other out of the way so the other one wouldn't win. Finally when we were close enough, we both touched dry land at the same time.

We looked at each other for a second and smiled at each other and then we both climbed out of the water and back onto the land. We laid down on the grass and let the warm summer air dry our clothes for us. I inched over so I was closer to Sasuke and he held me in his arms.

* * *


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter Thirteen**

* * *

Sorry if it's been taking so long for this story to get out, I'm taking six college classes right now and I have lots of homework.

* * *

**At the Akatsuki Headquarters...**

**Itachi's Point of View:**

We had gotten back last night empty handed so Leader-sama sent Zetsu to track them down instead. He said it would be easier and it would cause less of a commotion.

When Zetsu returned, I sat in one of the chairs in the dining room, waiting to hear what happened to Sakura.

"So what happened to pinky, hm?" asked Deidara. Zetsu climbed out of the hole and sat down across from us.

"Well, you're going to like this; pinky and that Uchiha kid killed Orochimaru and some of his followers," said Zetsu darkly. Deidara's eyes widened and he cheered.

"Yay! Oh isn't this wonderful master Sasori? Now we don't have to worry about that snake anymore!" he said hugging Sasori tightly to the point where it looked like Sasori wanted to throw up.

"You have three seconds to let go of me, one..." Deidara quickly let go of his partner and sat back down in his chair.

"Anything else?" I asked.

"I was getting to that until a certain blond interrupted me." Deidara sank into his seat and let Zetsu finish.

"As I was saying, while I was spying on pinky, I heard her talking to your little brother about something."

"And what might that be?" I asked him.

"I'll whisper it in your ear," he said. I listened and I felt my blood boil when I heard him tell me that my little brother almost slept with Sakura last night.

"My brother did what?" I said in a tone a bit louder than usual. I took a deep breath and clenched my fists for a second, and then let my hands relax.

"Well, thank you for telling me. Now if you'll excuse me, I have something else to attend to," I said leaving the room.

I went upstairs to my room and locked the door behind me. I laid down on my bed and looked up at the ceiling. Those words kept ringing through my mind and they wouldn't leave. But one thing was certain; my heart was broken.

* * *

**In Konoha...**

**Sakura's Point of View:**

Sasuke and I finally made it to Konoha but Tsunade had already found out the news when she discovered that Orochimaru's status in the bingo book changed from alive to dead.

"Well I'm happy that you two finally got rid of him. He's always been a pain, even when we were genin together...but enough of that."

"So, what's going to happen now?" I asked Tsunade.

"Well, for one; your crimes you committed have been repaid, so Sakura, you can have someone else train your genin, if you chose."

"So Ebisu is okay now?"

"Better than ever. However he won't be watching porn again anytime soon."

Then Tsunade turned to Sasuke.

"And as for you, Sasuke...you can stay here or you can leave, whatever you chose is fine with me." Sasuke turned to look at me and held my hand.

"I choose to stay here," he said.

"Well then, since you are staying, how would you like to join the ANBU black ops agents? We could use someone like you with them," she said to Sasuke. His eyes widened in surprise with a hint of excitement.

"Of course I'll join."

"Good to hear that. Come back tomorrow and you'll get your uniform and you'll meet your squad. Both of you are free to go now," she said to the both of us.

We left and walked down the street back to my apartment.

"So you don't mind if I stay with you?" asked Sasuke when we got inside my apartment.

"Not at all, actually...I'm going to like living with you," I said in a flirty voice. Sasuke walked up to me and gently pushed me against the wall and started kissing my neck. I moaned softly and shivered when I felt his lips on mine.

We kissed for a few minutes and then sat on the couch together and cuddled for a while.

"So what do you want to do now?" he asked me. I felt my stomach rumble. I had forgotten how hungry I was.

"Can we go out and get something to eat? I'm starving," I said sitting up. He nodded. We got up and we went out to eat at Irichiraku's Ramen bar.

All of our friends were there and for the rest of the day we all reconnected and caught up on things we missed.

"So you and Sasuke are finally going out?" asked Choji as he stuffed more barbequed ribs into his mouth.

"You stole Sasuke-kun?" said Ino glaring at me.

"I stole her," said Sasuke kissing me on the cheek.

Naruto made a gagging noise to Kiba when we weren't looking and Lee looked at me with big tears in his eyes.

"Lee, relax. There's plenty of other fish in the sea," said Neji patting his teammate on the back.

Shikamaru looked at us for minute while lighting up a cigarette and then took another glance at us. Then he smirked at us.

"What?" I said. "Do you have a problem or something?" He said nothing for a minute and then smirked at us.

"So Sasuke, what else have you two done besides kill Orochimaru?" Sasuke started to blush but stopped as soon as I held my hand.

"That's just between me and Sakura," he said plainly. Then Naruto gave Sasuke a "you're hiding something from me" look and Sasuke sighed.

"Did you sleep together or something? Because I think you did," said Naruto smirking at us.

"Naruto leave them alone, that's their business if they slept together or not," said Tenten throwing a piece of shrimp at Naruto's head.

"Thank you Tenten," I said.

"So, any wedding plans?" asked Kiba.

"Not yet," said Sasuke. "Its way too soon for that." Then he turned to me. "But we will one day."

After all of us were done eating we all hung out in the park for a while and watched Shino do some tricks with his beetles and Hinata showed us a new jutsu she learned a few months ago. It was great being able to hang out with all of my friends again and I didn't want any of this to end.

* * *

**Somewhere...**

**No One's Point of View:**

"Did you find him?"

"He's over here."

"I'll get him out." He pulled on the arm, and out came a weak looking Kabuto.

"So the bastard is alive after all?"

"I-I couldn't save him," said Kabuto weakly. "Orochimaru-sama is dead for good." The sound four looked at him and then sighed.

"Well, now what?"

"We get revenge dumb ass!"

"Yeah, revenge sounds pretty good. Sasuke is going to pay for what he did to our lord and master!"

"And what about the pink haired girl?"

"That little slut can go to hell for all I care!"

"It would be better just to kill Sasuke. Sakura will be too devastated to do anything after he dies," said Kabuto slyly.

"It's the perfect plan, but how are we going to do it?".

"Gather around," said Kabuto. "I have a great idea on how we can get revenge."

Back at the Akatsuki Headquarters...

Itachi's Point of View:

"Itachi, are you okay in there?" asked Kisame from behind the door. "You haven't come out for almost a week and everyone is getting worried about you."

"I'm not coming out," I said staring at the wall.

"Itachi-kun! I'll let you do me if you come out!" said Mai in her annoying shrill voice.

"He doesn't want sex you stupid bimbo!" said Kakuzu.

"He wants pinky, yeah," said Deidara. I sighed and opened the door.

"I told you that praying to my god would work," said Hidan clutching his necklace. Then an orange spiral popped up behind him.

"Hi Hidan-sama!" Hidan almost jumped.

"Tobi? What the hell?"

Tobi was standing there with his usual mask on.

I sighed and walked past all of them and down the hall, but I could still hear seven sets of footsteps behind me.

"Will you all just go away?" I asked them. "I don't want to talk about her..."

"Hmph! Well then, no more fooling around with me in my kitchen then," said Mai.

"Not you, idiot!" said Sasori in an irritated voice.

"Oh. Her...exactly what does she have that I don't?" she said putting her hands on her hips.

"Well for one thing, she hasn't banged every single guy here," said Kisame.

"And she's not annoying," said Hidan. Mai glared at everyone and went back downstairs to the kitchen.

"But she almost slept with Sasuke-" before Deidara finished his sentence I felt a surge of rage flow through my body and threw a kunai at him, leaving a cut on his shoulder.

"Sorry, un," said Deidara. I left and went outside to train. That was the only thing that could make me feel a little better.

But it can't heal the pain...And I knew this felt strange for me, but something inside my black heart that I didn't just like Sakura anymore.

"I love her..."

* * *

**Sakura's Point of View:**

After Sasuke and I left the park after a day of hanging out with our friends, we went back to my apartment to relax.

"Do you care what we watch?" I asked him.

"It doesn't matter to me," he said.

"All right," I said changing the channel to watch my favorite shows. And as I expected, Sasuke wasn't too crazy about the show. He only watched it so he could cuddle with me on the couch. After the show, Sasuke sighed with relief.

"I take it you didn't like it?" I asked him.

"Not really, but I'm just glad I get to spend time with you," he said kissing me on the cheek. I let out a yawn and leaned on his shoulder.

"Tired?" he asked me. I nodded. We both got up and I went down the hall to my room to change into my nightgown. Sasuke went to the guestroom but as soon as I finished changing I had him come to my room.

"You don't have to sleep in the guestroom," I said taking him by the hand. "You're more than welcome to share a bed with me." Sasuke smiled and fell asleep with his arm around my waist.

I woke up later in the middle of the night to find that Sora, my cat was meowing and looking up at me with sad kitten eyes. I picked her up and put her on the bed with me and Sasuke. She walked over to Sasuke, and curled up into an orange ball on his chest and fell asleep. Sasuke was still sound asleep, and I wondered what he was dreaming about. He stirred a bit, causing his hair to fall into his eyes. I reached over and brushed it out of the way, and he opened his eyes and looked up at me.

"When did you get a cat?" he asked me sleepily.

"About a week ago," I said looking over at my cat, which was fast asleep.

"Oh, just wondering. And by the way, your cat's a boy," he said.

"What?"

"Yeah, I was gonna tell you earlier, but I forgot."

"So...Sora is...a boy?" Sasuke nodded.

"Oh well. That's why I picked a name that works for a boy and a girl," I said. "In case this would happen." Sasuke smiled and I leaned over and kissed him on the lips.

"Hold on," said Sasuke. He picked up Sora and put him at the foot of the bed. We kept kissing each other and I felt shivers up my spine when I felt Sasuke's hands under my nightgown. I pulled away and looked up at him.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"I'm not ready," I said sleepily.

"Okay," he said yawning. We both fell back asleep, happy to be together.

For the next five months we lived together and cherished our time together. Most of the time I would be working at the hospital healing wounded patients. Sora had gotten big and also a bit on the chubby side, but he was still the cutest cat ever. Everything in my life was perfect and I didn't worry about anything bad happening to anyone; my friends, my family, or Sasuke.

Sasuke and I had fallen so deeply in love with each other and I had a feeling that he was going to ask me to be his wife sooner than I think. He had told me to meet me on top of the mountain where the faces of the hokages were carved and wait for him to show up.

It had been almost an hour and I was getting really bored.

"Sasuke...at this rate you'll show up later than Kakashi."

"What are you talking about? I'm already here," said a voice. I turned around to see Sasuke with a bouquet of red roses in his hands and I ran over to him and hugged him tightly.

"I tried to get here sooner, but Ino wouldn't let me out of the flower shop," he said handing me the roses.

"Ino-pig..." I said under my breath. "I can't believe that after all this time she's still after you."

"Well don't worry; I have no interest in her." I smiled and Sasuke kissed me gently on the lips.

"I got you something else," he said. "Close your eyes." I closed my eyes and felt my heart race, wondering what was taking him so long.

"Okay, open your eyes," said Sasuke. When I opened my eyes, Sasuke was holding a box.

"Sasuke..." I was so happy that I wanted to cry with tears of joy. I knew what was coming...

"I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Sakura, will you marry me?" he said getting down on one knee. I wanted to cry when I heard those very words. I knelt down in front of him and looked up at him.

"Yes, yes I will," I said with so many mixed emotions running through me right now. Sasuke took the ring out of the box and put it on my left ring finger. It fit perfectly. We kissed passionately for several minutes and then whispered 'I love you' to each other.

"Well, I finally have you two right where I want you," said a voice.

* * *

I think we all know what's going to happen next, or at least I know. You'll have to wait until next time! Please review!


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter Fourteen

* * *

**Author's Note: Insert Disclaimer here. Yes, I know Kabuto doesn't kill Sasuke in the anime. But Orochimaru is dead, and**

**I don't like Kabuto, so he's the villan. (And I do not own Itachi. If I did he would still be alive and most likely one half of **

**the Uchihacest pairing or with Hidan.) **

**--**

We both took out our weapons, ready for whoever dared to interrupt us. To both our shock, Kabuto came out of the darkness.

"What do you want?" said Sasuke holding his katana in front of him, ready to fight.

"Simple," said Kabuto. "Revenge."

"You dared to show your face in our village?" I asked taking out a kunai. Sasuke stopped me, and took the kunai away from me.

"Sakura, don't."

"Sasuke..."

"I don't want you to get hurt. I promise that I'll protect you." I was afraid to believe those words, but I did anyway.

"Okay, go get him," I whispered. Sasuke kissed me passionately on the lips.

"I will," he said. "Now, go. This is going to get very bloody, and I don't want you to see it." I backed off and went down the mountain, but despite how Sasuke told me he didn't want me to watch, I snuck around and watched from behind a pile of boulders.

* * *

**Sasuke's Point of View:**

I wasn't happy with the fact that Kabuto was still alive, but I was ready to take him on anyways.

"Ready to die?" I asked him.

"You should be more concerned about that," said Kabuto healing himself again.

"Chidori!" I shouted. I ran straight at him.

"Give up Uchiha! You may have been able to kill those idiots, but you won't be able to get rid of me!"

"Hn. Then you must be stupider than I thought," I said with a smirk. One of my clones came out of nowhere and both of us hit him with the chidori. But after that fourth shot, I would no longer be able to use it, and I wasn't sure if I had enough chakra to defeat Kabuto.

He wasn't exactly the strongest or most talented ninja around, but his body kept regenerating every time he was attacked. In other words, the only reason Orochimaru ever kept him around was because he was the only one who could withstand his experiments. Kabuto was Orochimaru's guinea pig.

"I'm afraid it ends here, Kabuto," I said closing my eyes, I summoned the lightning from the skies.

"Allow me to show you my new technique I call Kirin." There were huge flashes of lightning and Kabuto dropped to the ground and began to shake uncontrollably for several seconds. But to my surprise, he quickly got over it and threw several shuriken at me.

"You'll have to do better than that," he said. "Torturing me with lightning doesn't work." I fought Kabuto with everything I had for the next fifteen minutes, and I was starting to get the upper hand in the battle.

"Give up Kabuto, you can't defeat me! Even Orochimaru couldn't defeat me!"

Kabuto chuckled and I felt something cold and sharp slice into my stomach.

"Shinobi principle #11: never keep your guard down."

* * *

**Sakura's Point of View:**

Kabuto had stabbed Sasuke and I ran out of my hiding place to get a better look.

"Sasuke!" When I got there, he was on the ground bleeding heavily.

"Sasuke, please...don't die on me!" I shouted. Then I heard a weak voice.

"Sakura..."

"Sasuke?" I looked down to see that he was still alive, but I wasn't sure how much longer he had.

"Sakura, promise me...that you'll take care of yourself and never stop smiling," he said. Tears began to fall from my eyes as he said those words. I began using my chakra to heal him, but the would wouldn't close up.

"Try all you want," said Kabuto. "But the poison is incurable. Your healing jutsu is completely useless."

"No! He can't die!" I turned to Sasuke. "Please, don't leave me...I love you!" I cried. I felt his hand touch my face, and he looked up at me.

"One last kiss," he said as his hand dropped to the ground. I kissed him with intense passion, and I longed for him to stay with me, but I knew this was the end for Sasuke.

"Goodbye...and thank you for everything," he whispered. He took his last breath, and in that moment, his life had ended.

"Goodbye..." I whispered. I looked down at him for a second, and then I started cry even harder than ever before. I dug my face into his chest, and sat there and cried for what felt like forever.

Kabuto sighed and walked away, without so much as a hint of remorse for what he had done to Sasuke. But it was certain; life was cruel and it had taken Sasuke away from me. He was my one true love, my reason for living, my everything. But now...he was gone..._forever_.

* * *

**Itachi's Point of View:**

It had been six months since I last saw Sakura, and I had nearly forgotten about her for a while. But no matter how hard I tried, she was still in my dreams and I kept thinking about her when I was with Mai.

"I hope my little brother is treating her well..." I muttered. I got dressed and went downstairs to the dining room to have breakfast.

As usual Sasori and Deidara were arguing about art, while Kisame was making fun of Hidan for his religion. Kakuzu sat there quietly counting his money while Zetsu ate a piece of meat, obviously human. Mai came out of the kitchen wearing her usual skimpy dress and kept flirting with me the whole time.

"Hey Itachi-kun, did you sleep well last night?"

"Hn."

"So you still don't want to talk to me?" I stayed silent. I wasn't interested in talking with her.

"But Itachi, how could you not want to talk to me after that wonderful night we had?"

"That was three months ago," I said plainly. She sighed and walked away.

"There's no getting through to him," she said to Kisame.

"Well that's because he's not interested in you," he whispered back to her.

"Don't tell me that...no! There's no way he can't be over that pink-haired skank!"

"Don't talk about her like that," I said looking over at Mai. She glared at me and went back into the kitchen. I leaned back in my chair and closed my eyes.

"Peace at last," I said to myself.

"Itachi-san?" I fell backwards out of my chair only to find that Tobi was staring at me.

"Where did you come from?" I asked him.

"Well...when a man and a woman love each other a whole lot-"

"No, I meant when did you get here?" I asked him.

"Oh, I was here a while ago. I came because Leader-sama wishes to see you in his office," he said from behind his mask. I got up and walked upstairs without a word to anyone. They could all die for all I care...

* * *

**Sakura's Point of View:**

It had been a month since Sasuke died, but I was still crying myself to sleep every night. But I was proud of myself for getting through this. It was another day and I was starting to act like myself again, and I was happy that I had such great friends who will always be there for me. But I couldn't help but wonder...

I wondered how Itachi was doing without me...

"Itachi..." I whispered.

"Huh?" said Naruto turning to me.

"Nothing, it was nothing," I said.

"Oh, okay, just wondering," said Naruto.

Meanwhile in Pein's office...

* * *

**Itachi's Point of View:  
**

"Itachi, please sit down," said Pein.

"Why have you called me here at this time of day?" I asked him.

"I have some terrible news..." He paused for a moment and sighed. "I'm sorry to inform you...that Sasuke died in battle against Kabuto several months ago."

This wasn't what I expected to hear. My little brother was dead? This couldn't be true! Now I would never be able to have his eyes!

"Sasuke...is _dead_?"

"I'm afraid so. But he didn't die in vain. I was informed that he died a peaceful death."

"So what about Sakura? Have you heard from her recently?"

"No. But she was the poor unfortunate soul who had to watch him die." I sighed. I began to wish that I could have been there to take his eyes, but it was too late. However, I could attempt to dig him up and take his eyes.

"Thank you for informing me of this," I said getting up to leave.

"No problem," said Leader-sama. I left and went back down the dining room and found everyone still there.

"So, what did he want, hm?" asked Deidara.

"My little brother died," I said. Everyone's eyes widened in shock.

"I-I'm sorry to hear that," said Hidan. "Perhaps we can make a sacrifice and pray to him?"

"Hidan, Itachi isn't going to want to kill someone for his brother!" said Sasori.

"I know what he's going to want to do, yeah," said Deidara. Everyone turned to look at him.

"He's going to want to see pinky again. I bet Kakuzu ten dollars that she's single right now, un."

"Forget about the money," said Kisame. "We need to help Itachi get his girl back."

"Are you up to it Itachi-san?" asked Tobi. Did I really have a choice? No. But then again...I had been yearning to see Sakura for sometime now. I longed to hold her in my arms and kiss her. There were _many_ things I wanted to do to with her...most of them I would prefer not to say...

"Fine, just don't do anything stupid or I'll kill you," I said sighing.

"Yay! We're going on a road trip, yeah!" said Deidara.

"I'll get the sleeping bags!" said Kisame getting up.

"I'll get the marshmallows," said Tobi.

"And I'll bring a sacrifice!" said Hidan.

"I'm surrounded by imbeciles..." was all I could say.

I had been traveling with Kisame, Deidara, Hidan and Tobi for not even an hour and already they were beginning to annoy me.

* * *

The next chapter gets even more OOC with the Akatsuki boys! What type of torture will Tobi have in store for Itachi? And what

plans does Itachi have for Sakura (a lemon perhaps?) Find out next time. (Reviews are appreciated.)


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter Fifteen

* * *

**Insert Disclaimer here. Enjoy! R&R!**"Let's sing a song!" said Tobi. Deidara and Tobi got together and began to sing.

* * *

"This is the song that never ends! It goes on and on my friend! One day we started sing it, not knowing what it was and we'll keep on singing it forever just because: Hidan, your turn!"

"No! Fuck you!"

"Kisame?"

"Do I have to?"

"Yes!" they all shouted.

"This is the song that never ends! It goes on and on my friend! One day we started sing it, not knowing what it was and we'll keep on singing it forever just because..."

"Hey Itachi-chan why don't you sing next?" said Tobi.

"How about I kill you instead?" In an instant everyone stopped singing and kept quiet.

"Thank you. Now if we can get back to more important matters, we need to find Sakura." Everyone nodded and we continued on our way to Konoha.

'I'm coming for you Sakura, and this time...nothing will stop me from making you mine,' I thought to myself. I'll admit that I have fallen in love with Sakura, but what if she didn't want to see me again? I wouldn't know until I see her again.

But of course, even if she does try to reject me, I'll get her later. Everything stayed quiet for a few more hours until...

"Hey Tobi, are you thinking what I'm thinking, hm?" Tobi nodded. "Ready?"

"Okay!" They began to sing at the same time;

"F is for friends who do stuff together!"

"U is for you and me!" Deidara sang.

"N is for anywhere anytime at all," sang Kisame.

"Down here in the deep blue sea!" they all sang in unison.

"I said...shut up!" I said activating my sharingan. They quickly ended their song.

"Besides, that song is completely idiotic."

"You sound just like Plankton when you said that, yeah," said Deidara.

"Deidara, you know that Itachi doesn't watch Spongebob Squarepants," said Kisame. "He hates that show."

"Wow, he's really out of the loop," said Tobi. "I love Spongebob Squarepants!"

"Please! Cat Scratch is so much better!" said Hidan.

"I said for all of you to be quiet," I said still irritated.

"Sorry Itachi-sama, it's just that...we're bored," said Tobi.

"Then find another way to entertain yourselves without making any noise," said Kisame. Then I thought of a great idea.

"Hey, who wants to play a different game?" I asked everyone.

"What is it Itachi-chan?" asked Deidara.

"It's called: The Quiet Game. Whoever can stay quiet for the longest wins."

"When do we start?" asked Tobi.

"Right now." Everyone stopped talking and there was peace at last.

* * *

**In Konoha...**

**Sakura's Point of View:**

I was hanging out with Naruto, Lee and Ino in the park but we were extremely bored. Today was our day off and we had ran out of things to do.

"Wait, I have an idea," said Ino.

"What now?" asked Naruto.

"Sakura, when is the last time you went shopping?" Wow, it had been a few months since I went crazy with the shopping, and I really needed some new shoes.

"Are you suggesting that we go shopping?" asked Lee. Ino and I smiled evilly.

"Can we get ramen after?" asked Naruto.

"Sure," said Ino. "Come on Sakura, we have to get to the mall before they run out of the nicer clothes!" The both of us squealed and ran down the street, with Naruto and Lee struggling to keep up with us.

"Wait up Sakura-chan!" said Lee.

Fifteen minutes later we had already gone into the first store and Ino and I were already trying on everything that we thought was cute. Lee and Naruto didn't even bother going in the store with us and preferred to meet us in one of the larger stores, especially since there were so many girls running around in the store with us.

"What about this one?" I asked Ino holding up a lime green top.

"That's cute. What do you think about this skirt?" she asked showing me the orange mini skirt she was wearing.

"That's adorable."

"You should get one too, after all, there are lots of single boys running around right now," she said as looked at herself in the mirror. I hadn't thought about meeting a new guy yet. But I wasn't sure if I was ready to get back out there and look for a new guy.

"I'm not sure if I'm ready to look for someone new just yet."

"Oh, well that's okay. But it wouldn't hurt to take a look. For all you know, the perfect guy could be looking for you right now." As soon as she said that, I instantly thought of Itachi.

'Could he still be in love with me after all this time?'

_'Of course he is! The poor guy probably wants to do you too!'_

'You again? Why do you have to be so perverted?'

_'Why are you still a virgin?' _

BOOM! Inner Sakura took another trip to Saturn.

"Sakura? Are you there?" asked Ino. I snapped back to reality.

"I'm sorry I was just thinking," I said.

"Is about Sasuke? I know how you feel. I miss him too."

"Actually...I wasn't thinking him about him..."

"You weren't thinking about him?" she said surprised. "Then tell me, who was it?" I smirked at her.

"Now why should I tell you?"

"Are you in love with another man already?"

"Sort of..."

"Well then, who is it? You have to tell me!" Should I tell her? I wasn't sure if she'd want to know that I was in love with Itachi Uchiha, one of the top s-ranked criminals in the world, but she won't leave me alone until I told her. She was always like that; nosy...

"I'll tell you, but promise me that you won't freak out or anything," I said in a serious tone.

"Well how bad could it be?" she asked.

"Well the guy I like is."

"Oooh, a bad boy. I like bad boys."

"Ino!"

"Okay, sorry. I won't freak out, I promise." I took a deep breath and whispered his name in her ear.

"I didn't hear that," she said. I sighed.

"I'm in love...with Itachi Uchiha..." I said softly. Her eyes widened with horror at the sound of his name.

"You're...you're kidding, right?" I shook my head.

"I wish I could say I was, but its true. I'm in love with Itachi."

"But...why Sakura? How could you ever love someone like him? Naruto told me about how he used to hit you!"

"Look Ino, I know that he...well...made lots of mistakes...but, he cares about me. I saw it in his eyes when I first kissed me..."

"You've kissed him? When did that happen?" she asked me.

"Almost a year ago."

"So you really think that...he still cares about you?" I nodded.

"Well, I don't approve of Itachi...but if he makes you happy, then I say; go for it. You deserve to be happy." I smiled.

"Thank you Ino."

"Well there's just one thing left to do," she said to me.

"What is that?" I asked.

"We have to get you a cute outfit. You never know when he's going to show up to see you again," she said with a smile.

"Can we pay for all this stuff first?" I asked.

"No problem." For the rest of the day, we hunted for the cutest clothes to try on and had Naruto and Lee vote on which outfit they liked best. It was one of the best days I had in long time, and for once; I was happy. But I still counted the days until Itachi came back to see me again.

* * *

**Itachi's Point of View:**

Once again me and the other members of the Akatsuki stayed in our secret hideout away from headquarters and quite frankly, they were really beginning to piss me off.

"Hey Deidara, which movie do you want to watch?" asked Tobi going through the cabinet next to the TV set.

"How about "House of Wax?" asked Kisame holding up the tape.

"Are you kidding me? I've already seen that movie and the only good part was when that guy's head got cut off..." said Hidan.

"How about all of you die?" I asked them. They stopped talking and turned their attention to me.

"I know that all of you are excited about this mission, but keep in mind that we do need to keep our guard up at all times. 'This place is very close to Konoha and the place is crawling with shinobi out to get all of us."

"Sorry Itachi-chan, we just wanted to have some fun, yeah," said Deidara. I sighed.

"I don't care if you watch your movie, just don't get me involved." I left and went down the hall to my room and shut the door behind me. I wasn't in the mood to be putting up with any of those morons. I needed to figure out a way to sneak into the village and see Sakura without getting caught.

'Hm. I could use a transformation jutsu. It would get me through the village without getting caught by most of the shinobi, but they will know it's me.'

I thought of several more ideas and finally figured something out. I would have to have someone lure the guards out of the village so I could sneak in without him seeing through my disguise. Tobi and Deidara would be up to the challenge since they liked doing stupid things like that.

But mostly, I was hoping that they would die. As for Hidan and Kisame, they could be my lookouts in case something goes horribly wrong and those two nimrods aren't able to do their job. I laid down on my bed and looked up at the ceiling.

"Well Sakura, if you've been waiting to see me, then your wish is about to come true. I'm coming back for you."

* * *

**Sakura's Point of View:**

I had just gotten home and Sora greeted me and started meowing so I would feed him.

"All right, hold on." I took off my jounin vest and hung it up in my closet and got a can of cat food out for Sora. I swear that he's only begging me to feed him just for the sake of attention, since I'm not always home during the day.

I put his food down and he went to eat. He had gotten fat since he was a kitten, but it was probably because Sasuke must have given too many treats whenever I was gone. His face came to my mind again and I sat down on the couch and began to cry again. I looked up to still see the picture of us together hanging from the wall above the TV.

"Sasuke...I miss you so much! I wish you were here with me again..." More tears fell from my eyes as all of the memories of him kept replaying in my mind. I needed something to preoccupy my mind so I would stop thinking of him so much.

"I think I'll go pay a visit at my parent's bakery again." I changed into one of my cute outfits and went down the street across town to see my parents. When I got there, Riku and Amaya were putting up Halloween decorations for October.

"Hey Sakura, nice of you to visit again," said Riku opening the door. I went inside and there were a few customers sitting at some of the tables eating pastries, but not as busy as it was on Easter. My mother came out of the kitchen and was pleased to see me.

"Mom!" I gave her a hug.

"How's my little cherry blossom doing today?"

"Mom, please don't say that in public; it's embarrassing."

"Sorry, sometimes I still like to pretend that you're still a little girl." I sighed.

"So what brings you here today?" she asked me.

"I just needed something to do to get my mind off of...you know..."

"Oh don't worry, I'll give you something to do. Follow me." I followed her into the kitchens and she brought me to the ovens.

"Can you put all of these loaves of bread in and watch them for me?"

"Sure." My mother left and I spent the next three hours baking bread. Around five o'clock my father said they were all set and gave me some bread to take home with me.

"See you later!" I said waving to my family. I kept walking and then remembered that I should put some more flowers by Sasuke's grave. I went into the flower shop to find that Ino was making another floral arrangement.

"Well, if it isn't Sakura?"

"Hi Ino. I need some flowers for Sasuke's gravestone."

"Sure, what kind do you want?"

"You can surprise me"

"Okay then." She went to the back room and came out with a huge bunch of carnations, all tied up in a bouquet.

"Those are pretty, I like those," I said smiling.

"Good because it was either these or the peonies and I know you don't like those." I paid for the flowers and kept walking until I was at the edge of town, where it was extremely quiet.

The sky began to grow darker and it began to become foggier as I entered the cemetery. It was like a scene right out of one of those horror movies where the girl gets lost and some bad guy comes after her. I slowly walked past the tombstones and down the cobblestone path to where Sasuke was buried.

I had not come here since he died and I hadn't been able to come back and fix the flowers at his grave.

"Just a bit further," I said quietly to myself. His grave was at the farthest end of the cemetery, right next to the woods. All the graves next to his all had the Uchiha symbol on it, all of them victims of the Uchiha massacre. When I got closer, I saw a dark figure standing over his grave, holding a jar.

I also noticed that it looked like Sasuke's grave had just been dug up and reburied.

* * *

**Who could it be? I think that's obvious. Next chapter contains a short lemon and the reason why this story was rated mature in the first place. **


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter Sixteen

* * *

**Author's Note: This chapter contains the reason why this story was rated M. **

"It can't be..." I whispered. The figure turned around and it was Uchiha Itachi. Itachi was standing right in front of me with a few black roses in his hand.

"Sakura. Who would have thought that I would find you all the way out here?"

"What are you doing here?" I asked him.

"I wanted to pay my "respects" to my little brother." I knew that was one reason why he was here, but I knew that there was another.

"Did you also come here in hopes of seeing me as well?" Itachi walked closer to me and smirked at me.

"But of course. I had to see you again. It's been far too long since we last saw each other." At that moment it began to grow cold and it began to rain really hard. I started to shiver and Itachi took his cloak off and put it around my shoulders.

"I'll bring you back to your apartment. You're going to get sick if you stay out here."

"Okay." After I put my flowers down by Sasuke's grave, Itachi and I vanished and reappeared in the doorway of my apartment.

"You can sit down if you'd like." I said to him. He sat down on the couch and Sora came up to him and rubbed up against his leg.

"You have a cat..."

"Yeah, I found Sora outside the bakery one day and I brought him home with me."

"I'm allergic to cats," he said plainly.

"Oh, well I can take him out of the room if you want." Itachi stayed silent for a minute. Then he picked me up bridal style.

"I have a better idea," he said darkly. He carried me down the hall and I became nervous when we stopped in front of my bedroom door. Itachi looked down at me with his piercing dark eyes, and it was that moment I realized that there was a third reason why he was here, and this very reason scared me half to death.

"I've got plans for you," he whispered. He opened the door and closed it behind him. I heard a click and he carried me over to the bed and pinned me down to its edge.

"There hasn't been a day that I haven't thought of you," he whispered seductively. I began to grow nervous as he pulled me closer to him into an embrace.

"Itachi...you have no idea how much I've been longing to be with you since you left."

"Well now you don't have to worry anymore, because I'm here." He kissed me gently on the lips and pulled away, leaving me wanting more.

Itachi began to kiss me again, but this time neither of us wanted to stop. The kisses were passionate and full of desire for each other. We continued kissing with passion and I moaned as he slipped his tongue inside my mouth and he began exploring my mouth again.

Itachi didn't waste any time and quickly took off my shirt, along with the rest of our clothes. I felt my heart race faster when he unhooked my bra. I had never allowed anyone to see me like this, but this time I was ready.

Itachi's hands glided over my breasts, the feeling causing me to arch my back. His hands moved lower and pulled down my panties. He began kissing my neck, leaving a hickey on my neck. His kisses moved down further all the way down to my breasts and I couldn't take it anymore. I needed him. Now.

"I want you to make love to me," I said softly.

"I was hoping you'd say that," he said.

I was scared, but now I was finally ready. Itachi hovered over me and kissed me on the lips. I closed my eyes and felt a hard thrust between my legs. I was in pain, but I didn't show it. He thrust in and out of me, my inner walls tightening throughout my heated core. His thrusts were rough, each one faster and more pleasurable than the last.

All that was heard were the sounds of my moaning, his breathing and the headboard of the bed pounding repeatedly against the wall. We made love for what felt like hours. His paced quickened and I moaned loudly when I felt him hit a sensitive area inside me. I felt my hips begin to buck and I arched my back in an attempt to have more of him. The feeling was so erotic and I soon had my first climax, pushing Itachi over the edge, having his right after.

The only sounds left was from the two of us catching our breath. Itachi and I moved so that we were laying side by side, the sheets barely covering us.

"You belong to me now," he said softly. He kissed me lightly on the forehead and we fell asleep, still in each other's arms.

* * *

I woke up the next day to find that the sun had just risen and it lit up the room. But when I sat up, I saw Naruto, Kakashi, Jiraiyah and Sai standing in the doorway.

"What the hell are you doing here?" I shouted at them. Naruto and Kakashi quickly turned around and Sai and Jiraiyah were staring at me.

"Uh maybe you should tell us why you're naked," said Jiraiyah grinning. I quickly covered my chest with my blanket and glared at Sai and Jiraiyah.

"Will you go away until I can finish getting dressed?" They turned around and I quickly put on my usual ninja outfit.

"All right, now; what are all of you doing here?" I asked them.

"Well, you gave me your spare key and you said I could visit anytime I want," said Naruto.

"Then why did you visit today?"

"Because Sai and Ero-sannin are back from their training and I thought you wouldn't mind if we all came to visit you," said Naruto. I sighed.

"Well this isn't exactly a good time to visit."

"Is it because you had a 'friend' over last night?" asked Kakashi emphasizing the word friend.

"And how would you know that?" I asked in an angry tone.

"Because I can hear the shower running."

"Oh."

'Great, now they're all going to find out that Itachi is here and both of us are going to be in a lot of trouble! How did I get myself into this horrible mess?'

_'It was messy, but it wasn't exactly horrible. Last night was awesome!'_

'Damn it! Shut up!'

Naruto and the others sat down in the living room.

"Uh...do you guys want anything to eat or something?" I asked them.

"No thanks," said Naruto. "I just had ten bowls of ramen for breakfast."

"Is ramen all you eat?" asked Sai.

"What can I say? I love ramen!" Just then Itachi came into the living room wearing a towel. Everyone's jaws dropped when they saw Uchiha Itachi standing in the doorway. My jaw nearly dropped at how sexy he looked. His hair was still undone from last night and water was still trickling down his toned chest and abs.

"Sakura, what's he doing here?" asked Naruto.

"I was just about to ask the same thing," said Itachi plainly. Kakashi and Jiraiyah began to reach for their kunai.

"I have no desire to fight either of you today," said Itachi.

"So you only came back to see Sakura?" asked Kakashi. Itachi nodded.

"I bet he saw a lot of her last night," said Jiraiyah. He took out a notepad and began to write.

"A class-S criminal returns to the place that shunned him and risked it all to see his one true love...this would be a great story for my next book!"

"You slept with him?" said Naruto pointing to Itachi. "Sakura, how could you?"

"Naruto, you don't get it. Were in love."

"What?"

"That's right," I said standing next to Itachi. "I don't care if everyone in this room wants him dead! I'll still love him no matter what." Itachi turned to face me and kissed me on the cheek.

"You really mean that?" he asked.

"Of course I do. I love you." He smiled and kissed me again on the lips.

"I love you too."

"This is the perfect story!" said Jiraiyah interrupting us. "Sakura, I want you to be on the cover of my next book: Icha Icha Lovers!"

"Sakura is not going to disgrace herself by being in your perverted story," said Itachi. I nodded in agreement.

"So now we have the matter of turning Itachi in to Tsunade..." said Kakashi. "After all, he is still wanted in Konoha for killing the Uchiha clan."

"Sorry to disappoint you, but I'm not interested in staying here. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to get dressed," said Itachi heading down the hall to my bedroom.

"Sakura, I know that you have feelings for him, but you need to put them aside for a moment and think of the village," said Kakashi standing up.

"I'm sorry, but I'm not letting you take him away from me."

"He's a criminal! He's wanted in every village!" said Naruto.

"I'm well aware of that."

"Well then if your not going to help us turn him in, then we'll have to turn you in as well," said Kakashi.

"No! I'll leave instead." Kakashi sighed. I knew that he wanted to turn Itachi in, but I know he also cared for me as well, since I was once one of his students.

"All right. You have until tomorrow. If you don't leave by then, you and Itachi will be placed in jail and face the possibility of execution."

"I understand." Naruto came up to me and gave me a hug.

"It's not going to be the same without you," he said.

"Sakura doesn't have to leave," said a voice. I turned around to see Itachi dressed and leaning in the doorway.

"What's your plan?" asked Jiraiyah with suspicion.

"Kabuto is still at large. I have no problem with turning him in to the leaf village instead of myself."

"That doesn't sound like a bad idea," said Kakashi. "But why do you want to get rid of Kabuto?"

"He discovered the location of our headquarters, forcing us to relocate."

"Then I'm going with you. I was the one who had to watch Sasuke die. And I plan on making him pay for killing Sasuke," I said looking at Itachi.

"I'll let the hokage know about this," said Jiraiyah leaving my apartment. Kakashi and Itachi stared at each other with dislike for each other in their eyes.

"You may be able to get the hokage's approval, but I still don't trust you," he said to Itachi. He chuckled for a few seconds and activated his sharingan.

"You know very well that you don't trust me. I don't trust you either."

"Just stay out of my way," said Kakashi. "Naruto, Sai, are you two coming?"

"Yes," said Naruto. Sai followed him, leaving Itachi and I alone again.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" I asked him.

"For you, I'll do anything." He walked up to me and put his arms around my waist and held me tight for a moment. I closed my eyes and Itachi leaned in closer and kissed me gently on the lips.

"I would do the same thing for you," I said after we pulled away. Out of nowhere, my stomach began to growl and Itachi smirked at me.

"I'll make you something to eat," he said walking over to the kitchen. I smiled.

"That would be wonderful," I said following him.

* * *

Ten minutes later...

We just finished making a batch of pancakes and bacon and now we were sitting down next to each other eating breakfast. Sora came out from under the couch and started rubbing up against Itachi's leg. Itachi sneezed.

"Are you okay?" I asked him.

"Don't worry about it. I'm fine."

"Okay, I just feel bad that Sora is bothering you." Itachi sighed and gave me a look saying that he was fine. I got up and put some cat down for Sora and he ran over to his dish and ate it quickly. Itachi motioned for me to come back and sit next to him. When I sat down, he put his arm around me and I held his other hand in mine. He looked down on me and smiled.

"We need to leave and get rid of Kabuto." Itachi put his cloak and hat on and we went out the door, but before we did, I made him use a transformation jutsu to make himself look different so no one would get suspicious.

He changed so that his hair was short and light blue and his eyes were dark blue and he was wearing regular ninja clothes. As we walked downstairs, I saw Mrs. Hirashi, the landlady coming towards us.

"Sakura!" I sighed. I didn't like Mrs. Hirashi. She was the rudest, meanest woman I had ever met, and she was greedy.

"Good morning Mrs. Hirashi, how are you today?" I said kindly.

"Is that all you can say?"

"What do you mean?"

"Because of you and your boyfriend here, I couldn't sleep last night!"

'That deaf old buzzard actually heard Itachi and I...'

_'How could anyone not have heard you two? You could've woken the dead with all the noises we were making last night!'_

SLAM! Inner Sakura went back to Saturn again.

"Sorry to hear that. Maybe next time you should turn your hearing aid off next time old lady!" I said gritting my teeth. I took Itachi by the hand and we left, ignoring the old hag.

After that run in with my landlady, we had finally left the gates of Konoha, and ready to take care of some unfinished business. Itachi transformed back to himself, and had me follow him though the forest.

"So where are we going?" I asked him.

"Hn."

"You're not going to tell me?" I asked playing with a kunai I took out of my weapons pouch.

"You'll see when we get there." I sighed. This was going to be a long walk...

* * *

A few hours later...

Itachi stopped in front of a tree and tapped one of the knotholes three times, and a trapdoor appeared out of nowhere and he opened it up.

"Don't worry, its safe," he said motioning for me to go in. I went under the door and he followed. I jumped down and landed on a hardwood floor in the middle of a small hallway. Itachi walked past me and opened the door and it was a small living room.

"Hey Itachi, I see you're finally back, yeah!" said Deidara running towards him.

"Hn."

"So you brought pinky back?" asked Kisame looking at him. Itachi said nothing, but then Kisame and Deidara smirked as soon as they saw me standing behind him.

"Care to tell us what kept you two?" asked Hidan.

"Excuse me, but that's none of your business," I said glaring at Hidan and the others.

"So you did sleep with him, didn't you?" said Kisame smirking at Itachi and I.

"That's none of your concern," said Itachi. He took me by the hand and went down the hall to his room. I sat down on the bed and he sat down next to me and held my hand.

"They're all too nosy for their own good," I said looking up at him.

"Don't worry about what they say," he whispered. "I'm not letting anyone or anything come between us ever again." We both leaned in closer and closed our eyes and felt our lips meet again. I felt his tongue licking my bottom lip and eagerly let him into my mouth.

I felt his arms pull me closer to him, while I had one hand on the back of his neck, and the other on his shoulder. The kiss felt so good and I was so into it that I didn't see or hear the door open.

"Tobi is a good boy!" I quickly pulled away from Itachi and freaked out when I saw some guy standing there wearing a mask.

"Who the hell are you?" I asked him.

"My name is Tobi and I'm a good boy!"

"Leave," said Itachi in an irritated tone. Just then Deidara walked into the room.

"I had to make sure that you two didn't get too rowdy," said Deidara smirking at us. Both of us glared at him. "But then again, you must have already, un."

"Get out now," said Itachi giving Tobi and Deidara a death glare. They quickly left the room.

"Tobi is a good boy!" said Tobi waving at us.

"Go be a good boy somewhere else!" I yelled at him. Itachi got up and locked the door and then turned back to me.

"Now...where were we?" he said seductively. I pulled him back onto the bed next to me and kissed him again.

* * *

Later...

Itachi and I were lying naked under the covers in an embrace after having sex again. We heard a knock on the door. Itachi put his cloak on and got up to answer the door.

"I just wanted to let you know that Hidan was out and he spotted Kabuto," said Kisame. Then he looked over Itachi's shoulder at me.

"Well, someone's been having fun in here lately." Itachi sighed.

"It's none of your business, so I suggest you leave." Kisame left and Itachi shut the door and got back into bed with me after he took his cloak off.

"So when are we going to make our move?" I asked him.

"Tomorrow at dawn," said Itachi.

Itachi woke me up a few hours later so we could begin our hunt for Kabuto.

"Itachi?"

"What?" he said sleepily.

"All I have to wear is that dress and well..."

"Here," he said tossing me a pair of pants and a white tank top.

"Thanks." I put them on. I was admiring myself in the mirror when Itachi came up from behind and wrapped his arms around my waist.

"You're missing something."

"What could I be missing?" Itachi said nothing. He went to his closet and put one of his Akatsuki cloaks around my shoulders.

"That's better." I sighed.

"What's wrong?"

"It's just that...I made a promise I would never go back to the Akatsuki again." He kissed me on the cheek.

"I know. But I want you to be with me." I turned around and kissed him lightly on the lips. Itachi deepened the kiss and I parted my lips and our tongues danced for a few minutes.

"Are you guys ready to-" Kisame walked through the door only to find us making out. Itachi pulled away from me and turned to his partner.

"Well be there in a minute."

"Okay then, just don't spend all day in here," he said smirking at us. He left the room and Itachi and I finished getting ready to go.

* * *

Sounds like Kabuto is dead meat. For good. Find out next time if I'm lying. (Reviews are appreciated).

* * *


	17. Chapter 17 Ending

**Chapter Seventeen**

* * *

**Author's Note: This is the last chapter to Betrayal and I want to thank everyone who read/reviewed and supported this story. A special thanks goes out to my friend Erin Nightshade (thanks for the Kyle drawing). And for those of you who read chapter 16 and didn't like the lemon, I decided to redeem myself and write another one in this chapter. Enjoy. :)**

* * *

**Sakura's Point of View:**

I woke up in the middle of the night to find Itachi awake as well.

"What's wrong?" Itachi asked.

"I can't sleep."

"You seem like you're worried."

"I am. Kabuto took Sasuke's life, I don't want to loose you too." Itachi stared at me and left a chaste kiss on my cheek.

"Sakura, don't worry. I don't like to see you worry."

"Yeah, but—" He silenced me with a soft kiss. His lips left mine and began to trail slowly down my neck and to my bare shoulder.

"Itachi." He stopped and looked at me. "I love you."

"I love you too," he whispered. "And if anything happens to me tomorrow, remember that." I nodded and Itachi reached behind me and took off my bra.

"Are you sure we should be doing this right now? I don't want to wake everyone up."

"Don't worry about it," said Itachi taking off his shirt. "I'm the lightest sleeper here." His hands roamed to my breasts and began feeling them. My back arched slightly and I closed my eyes.

His mouth found its way to my breast and his tongue moved slowly over my rosy peak. A moan escaped from my throat as he continued to caress me. His hands soon moved from my breasts, down my waist and held onto my hips. He pulled down my shorts and slid them slowly over my legs.

Once they were off he threw them aside and caressed my inner thigh with his right hand. His fingers moved closer to my heated center and ran a finger gently over the small piece of fabric that was my underwear. I moaned softly again. Itachi's face lit up with amusement.

"And I've just barely touched you." I reached for his pants and began tugging on them so they would come off as Itachi's lips came crashing down on mine in a passionate kiss. His tongue entered my mouth and fought against mine for dominance. I finally managed to get his pants off and felt his hard length pressing against my thigh.

We pulled apart and Itachi pulled my panties off in one quick motion. His hand moved up my inner thigh and over my heated core. Even though this wasn't my first time, I was still nervous. The first two times we made love went by too fast, so it seemed strange to me that he was taking things so slow.

"Why are you so nervous?" he asked as he stroked my sensitive area. I closed my eyes and moaned softly.

"You have control over me."

"I feel the same way about you." Two fingers entered me and he gently thrust them in and out, sending me into ecstasy. Waves of pleasure ran through my body and I whispered his name. My hips thrust forward to meet each of his thrusts. Before I went over the edge Itachi stopped and slid his fingers out of my wet core.

I wondered what else he had planned for me. He pulled his underwear down and let me have a good look at his hard length. Some part of me became curious. I wanted him to feel me.

I sat up and looked up at him. My hand reached between his legs and my fingers ran over the tip of his hardened member. I heard a low growl come from him, wanting for me to continue. My hand ran down the length and I wrapped my hand around him completely. Another growl was heard from Itachi's chest. Almost animalistic...he was enjoying this.

My hand began to move and up down his hard length more quickly until Itachi let out a soft moan. He came onto my hand and I heard him breathing heavily. He grabbed my other hand and held it in his. Before I knew it, I was pinned down to the bed and Itachi was lowering himself over me.

"I can't wait any longer," he said softly. "I need you." My heart began to race faster with anticipation and finally I felt Itachi enter me. His movements were slow and gentle at first, allowing me to get used to his size. Soon his pace quickened and his thrusts became deeper and harder.

Soft moans escaped from the both of us as we moved closer to our release. My hips began thrusting against his again creating more friction between us. It felt so amazing that I had to cry out his name several times. Itachi moved faster until finally we both hit our climax and had our release. He collapsed on top of me and rested his head against my chest. We laid there for several minutes with our eyes closed, while trying to catch our breath.

Itachi pulled out of me slowly and laid beside me and rested his hand on the curve of my hip.

"Will you be able to sleep now?" he asked me. I nodded and closed my eyes. And soon I was able to go back to sleep.

* * *

**The next morning...**

"Ready to go?" he asked. I nodded. We went outside to find that Deidara and the others were just about to leave.

"Well, it's about time you showed up, yeah."

"Be quiet," I said to Deidara. "We don't want him to hear us."

"Kabuto is close...very close," said Itachi as his eyes scanned the forest for Kabuto.

"It look's like I've been found out," said a voice. All of us looked up to see Kabuto standing on a tree branch with that awful smirk of his.

"You better wipe that smirk off your face right now," I said to him.

"I must say Sakura, I didn't expect you to move on so quickly. You obviously have a liking for the Uchiha clan, considering the fact that you've been with both of them."

"Leave my personal life out of this! You know why I'm here."

"You came to kill me?"

"I'm afraid you're mistaken," said Itachi. "Sakura didn't come to kill you. All six of us did."

"Well if that's the case, then bring it on. I'm ready for you morons to try and kill me." He threw a barrage of kunai at us, but we all dodged them easily. The fight had now begun.

* * *

**An hour later...**

"Is that all you got?" asked Kabuto. Tobi was down, and Kisame was starting to get tired from swinging Samehada at Kabuto so many times. Deidara on the other hand was still his hyper self and the rest of us were unharmed.

"I'm not done yet," said Deidara. "You failed to notice the clay figures behind you." As soon as he said that, all of the clay bombs exploded one by one, but Kabuto still didn't have a scratch on him!

"Sorry to disappoint you, but don't you realize that I can regenerate after an attack?"

"I'll take care of him," said Hidan using his scythe. He slashed it at Kabuto several times, but Kabuto's scratches healed rather quickly. The fight between those two lasted for what seemed like hours, and neither one was getting tired at all.

"Why don't you just give up already Hidan? You know neither of us will win this fight."

"You've forgotten that I am immortal," he said changing his form. He jumped back into his circle after tasting Kabuto's blood and started stabbing himself with various sharp objects. He screamed from the excruciating pain, but I think he was actually enjoying it. Kabuto fell to the ground and died.

I got up and ran into Itachi's arms and he held me tight for a moment. I looked up at him into his eyes and he kissed me gently on the lips. Then Itachi held my hand.

"Will you come back to the Akatsuki with me? If you come back with me to the Akatsuki, I'll promise that you'll be happy."

"I was hoping you'd say that." He picked me up and carried me all the way back to the Akatsuki, with the others still following us.

In Konoha...

Tsunade's Point of View:

That day I called Naruto, Sai, and Kakashi to my office.

"Why have you called for us Grandma Tsunade?"

"How many times have I told you not to call me grandma?" Naruto was such a pain, even as an adult.

"About five hundred and forty six." I sighed.

"The reason I called for you was because I received a letter from Sakura." I handed it to Kakashi and he read it.

-0-

_Dear Everyone, _

_I know this is hard for you to hear, but I have decided to leave Konoha. Permanently. _

_My decision was a very difficult one for me, and I am sorry. To Naruto, I leave you all my food and my weapons that are in my apartment. You were the best friend and teammate I could have ever asked for and I will miss you terribly. _

_To Sai, I know how much you like to read so I am leaving you all my books for your enjoyment. I know that you still think of me as "ugly" but I will always think of you as a friend. _

_To Kakashi-sensei, In my closet there is a cardboard box that says "misc." on it. Inside are some manuscripts that Jiraiyah sent me. Apparently he's still going to write "Icha Icha Lovers" even after Itachi threatened to kill him. I will miss you as well, and I will always think of you as my sensei. _

_To Tsunade-shishou, I will miss you the most of all. You helped me learn to believe in myself and find my inner strength. I am leaving you my cat Sora. I know that you will take good care of him. _

_Perhaps one day we will meet again, but for now I am content with spending the rest of my life with Itachi. _

_I love and will miss you all terribly, _

_Sakura_.

-0-

"She left us for...him?" Kakashi said sighing. "Well, I suppose if they are in love..."

"They are," said Naruto. "When we went to see them the other day, didn't you see the way they were looking at each other? And she told him how she felt in front of us."

"I still think Sakura is ugly, but I guess I shouldn't be questioning Itachi's taste in women."

"You know, both of them would kill you if they heard you say that," warned Kakashi.

"Then what do we do now?" Naruto asked.

"Sakura will be registered as a rouge ninja to this village. But I have a feeling we won't be seeing her or Itachi for a while now."

"Why?" Naruto asked. I glared at him.

"Are you dumb or something, _dickless_?" Sai asked. "They're probably..." Sai made a weird motion with his hands.

"Oh..." Naruto stopped for a minute. "Ew! Sai, that's gross! We didn't need to know that! And for the last time, stop talking about my dick!"

"Okay guys, that's enough. Let's go back to training." Kakashi pulled the young men apart and dragged them by the ears out the door. After they left Shizune came in.

"Was it really wise to let Sakura leave the village like that?"

"No it wasn't. But I know that Sakura will be happy. That's all that matters to me." Sora crawled out from under the desk and jumped up into my lap. "And her little kitty is starting his exercise program tomorrow."

* * *

**In Pein's Office...**

**Sakura's Point of View:**

"So now what are you two going to do?" said Pein.

"Well, since Tobi was killed you have a spot open," I said.

"Then welcome back," said Pein. We left Pein's office. Itachi brought me back to his room and placed me gently on his bed. He pinned me down and kissed me gently.

"You're the best thing that's ever happened to me," he whispered.

"And you're the best thing that's ever happened to me."

* * *

**And that was the end! (Cries) I have no idea if I want to do a sequel (most likely not) but I will start posting "Beneath the Silver Moon" (a vampire story) soon. Reviews are appreciated! **


	18. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

**Author's Note: I decided to put in a short epilogue for those who weren't completely satisfied with the ending. I also tweaked chapters 16 and 17 a bit and 17 is now a bit longer (and makes more sense). Enjoy!**

* * *

After I left Konoha, Tsunade-shishou and the village still set out to find each one of the Akatsuki and eliminate them. Including myself. But I had a trick up my sleeve. About two years later would be when the jutsu for the nine demons would no longer work, and the Akatsuki would be forced to disband.

I didn't tell Itachi a thing about my plan. But for some odd reason I had a feeling he had known the whole time. I ended up buying Naruto the two years he needed and finally the organization was finished.

Many of the members were taken down: Pein, Kakuzu, Hidan, Deidara and Sasori. Tobi mysteriously disappeared, Kisame retired and moved to a small island, and Itachi and I managed to escape from the shinobi world as well.

Our house sat on the beach where the water was sparkling blue, palm trees surrounded us, and the sand had a slight pink color to it. The sun was strong nearly the whole year, and it has been three years since either of us had seen snow.

I sat on the side of the bed and watched Itachi as he slept. I gently poked his forehead.

"Itachi?" His dark eyes fluttered open and he looked up at me.

"What?"

"Let's go for a walk."

"It's too early," he said closing his eyes.

"Please?" He opened his eyes again.

"Okay." Since we didn't have to worry about getting up early for missions anymore, Itachi had a tendency of sleeping in on days like this when the sun was shining.

I went out and sat on the porch to wait for him. He came out a few minutes later with his hair tied back and dressed in his favorite black clothes.

"Come on, maybe we can find some starfish," I said. Itachi followed as we walked along looking for more shells to collect. Not that we didn't have enough already. Our house was decorated with sand dollars, seashells, and starfish in every room!

Itachi was rather quiet the whole time, but that wasn't unusual for him. We sat down together on the sand and watched the waves for a while.

"Sakura?" I turned to look at him. "You've been acting strange. Is something wrong."

I was scared to tell him. I didn't know how he would react. This would change so many things in our lives if he found out.

"I'm fine. Why do you ask?"

"Your eyes...they look different," he said gazing into my emerald green eyes.

"What do you mean?"

"You're hiding something."

"I'm not hiding anything." Itachi moved closer and kissed my lips softly.

"I can tell when you're lying to me," he whispered in my ear. The deep tone of his voice to this very day sent chills down my spine.

"Let's go inside, it's getting windy." Itachi followed me, but not still very please.

We sat at the kitchen table quietly as I read my medical book. Itachi sat next to me, with his hand around my waist.

'Does he already know?' He rested his head on my shoulder.

"Why are you reading about _babies_?" he asked me.

"Uh...just curious, you know?" Itachi didn't answer me.

I soon felt a sick feeling in my stomach. Like I wanted to throw up.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"I'll be right back." I got up and walked to the bathroom. Running would only make him more suspicious. I closed the door behind me and threw up in the toilet. I heard the door open and Itachi held my hair back.

"Are you feeling alright, Sakura?" he asked again. "You've been acting strange all morning. _Care to tell me why_?" I looked up at him and sighed.

"Well, you know how we've been...you know? 'Together' a lot?" Itachi gave me an 'isn't it obvious look.'

"I went to the doctor a few days ago...and well...you see I'm-"

"Are you pregnant?" he asked me.

"How did you know? I mean, I didn't know I was till a few days ago and-"

"It's about time," he said. I was surprised. "Why are you surprised?"

"It's just that, I was under the impression that you didn't want children...since you killed your clan and everything."

"I didn't want them to go through everything that I had to. Now its different." He leaned in and kissed me again on the lips.

"I just hope our baby doesn't have pink hair," I said.

"Don't worry, the Uchiha blood is strong." I smiled and kissed him on the cheek.

"Have I told you that I love you?"

"You do everyday," he said. "I love you too."

We went to the kitchen and sat at the table. I picked up my book again and Itachi rested his head on my shoulder as I

continued to read.

* * *

**I am sorry to say that there will be no sequel. I don't have the inspiration, motivation or time to make one. (Sorry). But I am working on another story and it'll be out soon. It's called Beneath the Silver Moon. Reviews are appreciated!**


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